Our newest Dealers RAF Hovercraft in Finland have recently received their demonstrators - two green and black Marlin II's.

As you can see, Finland really is an amazing place for Hovercrafting - take a look at the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUnqhFac5A&feature=related

Two Stroke Vs Four Stroke Engines - What's Best?

Not all leisure craft use the same Engine type.

Small/Recreational hovercraft have traditionally used two-stroke engines. Whilst they offer an excellent power-to-weight ratio, four stroke technology has caught up in recent years and offer significant advantages for hovercraft operating in a maritime environment.

Flying Fish were the first manufacturer to use ‘commercial power’ engines in significant quantities and our R&D department has worked tirelessly to develop them to the point where we have the finest engine package available. The Marlin II uses a Vanguard engine from Briggs & Stratton engines that is famed for it’s astonishing reliability. Once into our workshop, the motors are modified and ‘hoverised’ to match them to the fan assembly, producing astonishing performance from just 35bhp and 3800rpm maximum revs. Four-stroke power means fabulous economy of approx 6 litres per hour and low noise – low frequency noise as well, meaning it doesn’t carry far. It comes with electric start as standard and easy, infrequent servicing requirements. They simply purr away all day…endlessly!

Compare this to a two stroke engine – loads of noise, 25 litres of fuel an hour (plus oil!) and an uncanny knack of breaking down in the worst possible place…your call!

Instead of mounting the engine on a 'pylon' like you see on many hovercraft, we locate the engine down low for improved centre of gravity, under a bespoke engine cover system that offers excellent protection from the elements, allows unrestricted airflow and cooling and yet only takes a few seconds to remove.

One engine or two?

Many hovercraft use two engines, one for thrust, one for lift.

Flying Fish craft have one engine which provides lift and thrust, sited at the rear of the hovercraft. The reason being that it is easier and far safer to coordinate one set of controls, much more reliable (because ‘lift’ engines are usually at the front of the craft and end up covered in salt water – causing breakdowns.) It’s easier and cheaper to service one engine, more economical and of course, you get less noise from one engine and fan assembly.

That's not to say that two engines don't work well - they're essential on larger craft (in our opinion, craft over 4.5m should be fitted with two engines) but smaller, recreational hovercraft should work perfectly well with just one engine and fan assembly.

Stopping on land or Water?

The strengthened floor of Flying Fish hovercraft is protected by aluminium skids and runners to prevent damage when stopping on rough ground or sliding to a halt. Planing surfaces are also reinforced during construction to ensure that the hull is up to the knocks and bangs of day-to-day usage.

Stopping on water is a nightmare situation for some recreational hovercraft. This is because they have seriously compromised flotation and some aren’t even buoyant – they can actually sink if they take water on. We think that’s a bit of a design flaw! The Marlin II has positive buoyancy due to the closed-cell foam located in the hull. As far back as 2001, the Marlin was tested for ‘flooded buoyancy approval’ and certified by the French Maritime Safety Authority for use throughout the EEC. Another aspect is the placement of buoyancy. We’ve seen hovercraft with nearly all their buoyancy located in the floor – meaning that they risk capsizing if too much load is placed on one side of the hull. In the Marlin II, the hull is shaped like a flat-bottomed boat, so they’ll happily float whilst you fish the day away or wait for a lock to open.

Another issue that many hovercraft don’t like about stopping on water is that of getting back onto the ‘plane’ (called ‘getting over the hump’ in hovercraft parlance!) This is because they don’t have enough lift and thrust to push their way out of the hole in the water and create massive wash - spraying the unfortunate occupants with gallons of water. This potentially dangerous situation means a very wet, slow and embarrassing journey back to the shore and is completely unacceptable in a modern recreational craft – but surprisingly common. The Marlin II, loaded to it’s capacity, will be ‘over hump’ within five seconds and on its way, with no dramas at all. This is due to great skirt design, lightweight construction and lots of ‘push’ from the fan.

Is the skirt easily damaged? How long does it last?

Occasionally, a hovercraft skirt may get damaged and it's important to understand the differences in design and construction. The skirt must be thought of as the 'tyres' on your car, they will wear out and occasionally get damaged – but the choice of material effects how often this happens and how long it lasts.

There are basically two types of skirt used on hovercraft – bag and segmented (or finger) skirts.

The Marlin II uses a segmented skirt - 78 individual segments made from a bespoke material - neoprene coated nylon which is resistant to salt water, UV and tearing and has excellent wear characteristics. Because the skirt is made up of individual segments, should the skirt be damaged you simply replace the damaged one. Easy! It takes just a few seconds. In any case, due to the nature of a segmented skirt, what actually happens is that the segments either side of the damaged one will simply expand more into the available space – so you shouldn’t even see a deterioration in performance until you’ve damaged quite a number.

The reality is that damaging skirt segments is a pretty rare event in any case – the Marlin has superb lift characteristics so there’s no skirt dragging on the floor to snag obstacles. Heavier craft tend to be more prone to skirt damage for the opposite reason! A well designed skirt should generate almost no spray, something well worth checking when you try out a craft!

In normal recreational usage, we find most customers get around 2-3 years from their skirt before it requires complete replacement. In the mean time you’ll replace individual segments as you go.

The alternative to a segmented skirt is a ‘bag’ skirt. This is a single piece ‘loop’ like a giant inflatable ring, around the whole craft. The advantage of these is that they are very stable (which also means doughy/slow steering characteristics) and are relatively good on water. However they are more suitable on larger commercial / passenger craft and in any case, often have small segments fitted to the bottom. The reason for this is that a bag skirt is more like a giant high-pressure balloon and has much more ground contact, so it’s more likely to be damaged. And if you do damage it, it's pretty much game over – the whole skirt will need repairing, which may involve removing it all from the craft – a colossal job! It’s certainly not repairable on the beach, where you’ll need to mix up glue and stick on patches!

Ploughing In

"Ploughing in" is a term to describe a problem where a hovercraft suddenly decelerates due to the nose of the craft dipping into the water, usually at high speed when running downwind. It can only happen on water. Some hovercraft manufacturers claim to have a craft that does not do this, by design.

Without getting too techy – that’s entirely possible. If you build a hovercraft which is far too heavy for it’s size, it will generate very high skirt pressure. Coupled with the fact it’ll be very slow, it will certainly resist plough-in very well as it never goes fast enough to collapse the high-pressure skirt. Of course, the down side is that it’s slow, wet (all that pressure blows the water past the skirt - and onto you!) and the handling, maneuverability and general performance will be very poor. In other words, avoid any hovercraft that claims to be immune from the plough-in phenomenon!

So! What’s the answer? A well designed craft with a good skirt system will still plough in (every craft can – even the 400 ton SRN4 cross channel craft used to plough in if driven badly – which must have been a sight!) - it's just the nature of hovercraft construction, like all aircraft can go into a spin. What we’ve done with our craft is to push the plough-in limit as far as possible, make the craft give adequate warning – and a chance to recover - and minimise the deceleration so that when it does plough, the shallow planning surface simply slows the craft up a little, then it recovers and carries on. It really isn’t a drama, and in reality, rarely happens.

Given the extraordinarily good natured handling and performance of the Marlin II - and it's resistance to unneccessary plough-in's, it would be very easy for us to match some of our competitors spurious claims that "our craft don’t plough in" but we're not prepared to do that - it would be a lie.

Hovercraft have suffered from an image problem for many years. Despite a new Marlin II hovercraft clearly being a professionally manufactured, serious piece of kit, we still hear the same thing at shows from lots of people….”I built one of these at school” – when in actual fact, the difference between a Flying Fish hovercraft and a school-project is like walking up to a BMW and telling the owner you built a soap-box as a kid.

So – build or buy?

Well, both have their advantages. Here at Flying Fish, we supply a turnkey product to buyers who want to get out there in an amazing machine and have fun using it. Just like you’d buy a jetski or quad, we take your money and you get a fully warranted, reliable vehicle with great provenance .

But there’s another option. Companies like Sevtec and Universal Hovercraft will sell you a set of plans and you can actually build a hovercraft from scratch. You’ll buy the timber, source an engine or two, sew up your own skirt, source fan assembly parts, build steel fan frames, upholster seats and decide what colour gloss it needs to be finished in. It can be a fascinating project – as long as you have the necessary space, time and (crucially) skills to complete it safely.

Unfortunately, it’s probably fair to say that more don’t get finished than do. Its demanding and time consuming and enthusiasm and cash often run out before the projects completed (have you seen the price of marine quality plywood nowadays???) with the result that they end up on ebay – another unfinished project.  

So, if it does make it to completion, what do you have? Well – taking the Sevtec design, it’s very much a water craft designed for the American market – much more at home on big, open areas of water than exploring creeks and gullies. Their bag skirted design and large propeller means they lack maneuverability and whilst this makes them a great long distance cruiser, they’re not really a thrilling ride. I’ve always said, if a boat will do the job you have lined up for your hovercraft… use a boat!

Without the development that a professional manufacturer puts into their craft, homebuilt should always be inspected before operation. The terrible case earlier this year in New Zealand, when a man who’d built a hovercraft was killed by the propeller flying off the first time he used it just illustrates the point only too clearly. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021949/Man-pursuing-dream-decapitated-family-tested-home-built-hovercraft.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#  But dramatic accidents aside, (this was an unfortunate but inevitable accident) making the hovercraft work properly can be nearly as big a job as making it and builders often become despondent the first time out when it doesn’t work – and it ends up, you guessed it - on ebay. Fine tuning the skirt, lift and thrust fans/props, matching the engine to the fan and selecting the correct speeds, getting the trim right, chasing away vibrations and the steering safe…none of it is a five minute job and can soak up hundreds of hours of painstaking development. We should know, we’ve been there and even after thirty years of making hovercraft – we’re still learning.

And so, a year after work began, and with the set-up and problems still being sorted, the feller who bought a professionally manufactured craft is out in it exploring places nobody else can get to!

The other issue with regards building a hovercraft is the resale value. Being of (usually) a timber or aluminium construction, they usually look pretty ugly and we often see them featuring such crude features such as (I kid you not) plastic garden chairs for seating. it’s rare that a homebuilt hovercraft will fetch even a fraction of what it costs to build (and that’s before you price in your own time.) Sadly, it’s a fact that people simply aren’t prepared to pay much for your own efforts - rather like with homebuilt/converted camper vans. Some are very good, but they’ll never get the same price as a coachbuilt one.  On the other hand, as a rule, we usually find that a three year old, well maintained Marlin II hovercraft can be expected to retain 75-80% of it’s value., which isn’t too sad.

So – like everything else, it comes to personal choice and if it sounds like I’m opposed to homebuilding hovercraft, then I apologise. That’s not the case - in fact we’re beginning to look into the idea of selling component sets for self-assembly – ie all the parts that you need to build your own Marlin hovercraft. The advantages of this (rather than the ‘kit/plan’ option) are numerous.

• 1.       The craft will work – built from a set of matched and proven parts.
• 2.       Much quicker build. There’s no need to build a hull – this is the basic unit on which the hovercraft is built.
• 3.       Backup and support from the factory will make the assembly safer and more successful.
• 4.       Parts can be bought as you go along – buy the next parts when you can afford it.
• 5.       It’ll look great and you’ll have something to be proud of.
• 6.       Once complete, you’ll have something with real value which can be sold on.

This is a significant departure from ‘kit’ hovercraft which are usually built from a set of plans and start with you building a plywood hull and fabricating every last piece of hardware. This is more like building a giant Meccano or Airfix kit!

Whatever your choice, Hovercraft are (to quote Jeremy Clarkson) “THE most fun you can have with an engine!”

If the ’component sets’ project sounds like something you may be interested in, then email us at sales@flyingfishhovercraft.co.uk and we’ll keep you updated with developments.

Russ

Flying Fish Hovercraft are delighted to offer an unusual and exciting business package. As manufacturer of The Snapper, we have a hovercraft available which is designed and built specifically for usage within events businesses for driving experiences.

These UK, hand built, little machines provide incredible thrills to the public at activity centres and driving experiences at a number of venues in the UK and abroad. We’ve operated our own events business for ten years in Kent and are now making them available as a package including the hovercraft, spares, training and all the other necessary equipment and support you need to add them to your existing events business or start from scratch as a profitable and fun business.

The package price of £20,000.00+VAT includes much more than 'just' two fabulous Snappers.

• Two Snapper Hovercraft (for full details, see below)
• Road trailer
• Two craft covers
• Spares package including replacement skirt segments, blades & belt, service parts, cables, various fixings etc totalling approx £1000.00
• Use of our website design and a credit towards establishing a web presence.
• Online ticketing/voucher system
• Vouchers/Gift Certificates/Presentation Certificates  & brochures all provided and with your own details.
• Visit to your site to advise on course design / training your staff (UK Mainland only – overseas visits may incur an additional cost.)
• One day training for company principle/administration
• Introductions to packaging and ticketing companies.
• Advice on where to source insurance.

The Hovercraft

The Snapper was developed specifically to provide a thrilling driving experience for the public at events and activities centres. These incredible little craft are easy to drive and fast enough to be fun. They’re tough, easy to repair and easily serviced with long service intervals. They look fantastic and are professionally finished with a strong fibreglass hull and stainless steel fittings.

We’ve personally run these craft and events for over ten years and in that time have learned everything there is to know about maintaining and repairing them. No other manufacturer produces a craft which is designed specifically for driving experiences, or has as much experience of operating their own craft as Flying Fish does.

• Your choice of colours from our standard range.
• Powered by Briggs & Stratton 23bhp engine
• Revs at just 3800rpm
• Low noise (74dbA at 25m) at a low frequency
• Electric start
• Very frugal – drinks just 5-6 litres fuel per hour.
• Commercial engine power means long service intervals and long service life.
• Very robust craft and engine.
• Cheap and easy to maintain segmented, flexible skirt.
• Simple driving controls consisting of handlebars and throttle – that’s it!
• Training takes less than ten minutes per driver.

The Event

A grassy field and a watersplash! That’s all you need to provide to complete the requirements of this unusual and sought after event. You can even dig your own water-splashes  if there is no water on your potential site, which is what we’ve done at our own event.

You can work from a home office, taking bookings either by phone, your websites ticketing system (included) or from voucher companies. We’ll show you how to train folks in under ten minutes before they start pursuit events, relays and individual competitions.

You’ll easily ‘process’ 30 people a day at an average rate of £65.00per person. With good marketing, you should fill most weekends through spring, summer and early autumn – producing a turnover of around £3900.00 per weekend with an excellent profit.

This isn’t speculation – it’s proven figures!

Flying Fish Hovercraft

Flying Fish is a family owned business based in Dover, Kent producing recreational and light commercial hovercraft. Firmly established as one of  Europe’s largest hovercraft manufacturers, the business has developed the craft over ten years in which time hundreds of hovercraft have been sold throughout the world. Alongside this, Flying Fish run their own events business in both Australia & the UK, and have taught literally thousands of people to drive their craft.

Flying Fish have proven their craft in the harshest possible environments and taken on the biggest challenges. For instance,

• The only small hovercraft to have made multiple two way crossings of the English Channel.
• Completed eight challenging 1000km ‘Rhone Raids’ on Rhone & Soane Rivers.
• National Coastal Racing Champions in 2005/2006
• Inaugural National ‘Formula 503’ champions.
• Suppliers of craft to the makers of the BBC’s ‘Frozen Planet’ for use in Arctic conditions.
• The only small hovercraft to have completed a two way crossing of the Irish Sea.
• In use around the world in hundreds of different applications from flood response to cockling and from mud-sampling to yacht tenders!

Today, employing six full-time staff at their factory in Dover, the business continues to supply thrill seekers with exciting, reasonably priced hovercraft and commercial users with a vehicle able to access all areas at very moderate cost.

 For more details, contact Emma on 01304 829944 for a chat.

Please note - this package is not available for sale in Kent.

Together with Flying Fish Hovercraft’s Benn Bristow, Lee Denver set a first last Sunday, by taking his Marlin II hovercraft from Dover to France’s Cap Blanc Nez, an open water journey of approximately 23 miles.

The 41 year old was injured in an accident 12 years ago and left without the use of his lower body so the challenge of taking on the notoriously dangerous English Channel was not without it’s risks, and the crossing was accompanied by Lance Oram from the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation, who also provided the official timing.

Lee completed the crossing to France in just one hour fourteen  minutes, which makes him the first disabled person to pilot one of these amazing machines across the channel. Benn Bristow and his passenger Mark Leeming accompanied Lee (as did a school of Porpoises!)  and together the two craft flew onto the beach to be confronted by dozens of well wishing locals. Following a few pictures and some high-fiving, Benn & Mark returned to Dover in just 59 minutes. For Lee however, the journey had to remain a one way affair, as the conditions combined with fatigue to prevent him returning to Dover in his craft.

Flying Fish completed their first two way crossing in 2008, when Russ Pullen & Nelson Wood completed the  journey to France in 57 m, and then returned in 52 minutes, an unofficial record for small hovercraft.

Afterwards, Lee was philosophical about his trip and obviously disappointed that he was unable to return in his craft, but delighted with his achievement  and well satisfied with the £2000.00 that his trip raised for the ‘Help for Heroes’ charity. He thanked Flying Fish Hovercraft, and sponsors, JetSki World, Jomac Carpentry, Adventure Companies ‘Into the Blue’ and ‘Attraction World’, Sign from Above and Basic Boat Liability Insurance.

Before the 'off' in Dover Harbour

Leaving Harbour into some fairly choppy conditions

Met up with some friends mid-channel!

Attracting some attention from the locals in France!

Setting out for home.

Lee & Benn returning to Dover.

These craft leave our workshop tomorrow on their way to our new dealer "Hovergroup" based in Azerbaijan.

The 3 Marlin II craft and the 2 Snappers are the newest addition to Hovergroup as they sell almost every form of hovercraft available on the market today. They even sell Hover Platforms for transporting large machinery!

Check out their website at www.hovergroup.com

This stunning White Marlin II with all features from fuel guage to rev counter is now on its way to Scotland to be used as a survey craft to access areas on mudflats that cannot be reached by any other vehicle. 

Keep posted to see her soon with all her new graphics on and in action.....

These pictures were taken whilst on the Rhone Raid. The Raid is 660km navigating the rivers of France. There were 3 "Fish" that started and 3 "Fish" that finished.

Mr Nelson Wood was the first across the finish line and although it is not a race, to be first up the final slip way is always an honour.

This picture was taken at the finish line when all 3 of the Flying Fish Hovercraft made it back.

Well done to Nelson, Chris & Jenny...

THE RHONE RAIDERS.

A little while ago we sent a craft to be a tender onboard this yacht in Malaysia and now the owner Mr Christian Spliess has sent us these photo's of the yacht and the Marlin II onboard

Thank you for the pictures Christian, keep them coming...

Decked out in the style of the A-Team this Marlin II is off to it's new owner, none other than Mr Jamie Oliver.

To go alongside his mountain of other toys including quads, buggies & 4x4's this stylish addition will be noticed every where it goes.

Enjoy the craft Mr Oliver and we look forward to seeing you at one of our cruises, and speaking of cruises we think it's about time we had another so watch this space for details....

LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER....