The Largs Hovercraft
Flying across the Firth of Clyde
David Milloy
There was a time, back in the 1960s, when it seemed that the hovercraft, the brainchild of English engineer Christopher Cockerell, was going to revolutionise sea travel. A highly versatile machine, the hovercraft rode on a cushion of air which lifted its hull clear of the surface and enabled it to travel on both water and land. It needed little in the way of docking facilities in order to embark and disembark passengers – a beach or a strip of grass, tarmac or concrete would do very nicely, thank you – and it was considerably faster than conventional ships.
Britain took an early lead in the introduction of passenger-carrying hovercraft, and in 1965 the world’s first scheduled all year round hovercraft service was introduced on the Firth of Clyde. Operated by Clyde Hover Ferries, Saunders-Roe SR.N6 hovercraft, capable of accommodating up to 38 passengers and able to attain 50 knots (57 miles per hour) in suitable conditions, provided a service which connected the Cowal peninsula and the islands of Great Cumbrae and Bute with a variety of mainland destinations, including Largs. And with the SR.N6 being amphibious, it didn’t need a dedicated slipway or terminal. At Largs, it used a section of beach to embark and disembark passengers. And therein lay a problem.
The SR.N6’s combination of a gas turbine engine and large roof-mounted propeller meant that it was noisy. This led to complaints from both local residents and the owner of the town’s small seafront zoo. In addition, there was a dispute between Clyde Hover Ferries and Largs Town Council over charges which the latter sought to impose for use of the beach. The end result was that the hovercraft was banned by the Town Council from using Largs beach. It continued to operate elsewhere on the Firth of Clyde for a time but financial losses brought an end to its service in 1966.
That wasn’t, however, the end of hovercraft services from Largs, as the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (a precursor of Caledonian MacBrayne) introduced a scheduled hovercraft service between Largs and Millport in 1970.
Unlike the SR.N6 used by Clyde Hover Ferries, CSP used a so-called ‘sidewall’ hovercraft, the HM2. Built by Hovermarine, the HM2 featured ‘skirts’ only on her sides rather than around the entire hull. This gave her less drag than a conventional ship but, coupled with the use of conventional marine propellers, meant that she was not amphibious and could not be used in very shallow water or on land. On the plus side, the diesel-powered HM2 was quieter than the SR.N6 and her design made her easier to manoeuvre.
The service operated between Largs pier and Millport pier, with the flight (hovercraft are deemed to be aircraft rather than ships) between the two typically taking around 11 minutes. Up to 60 passengers could be accommodated in the HM2 but, like the SR.N6, she could not carry cars. The reintroduction of a hovercraft service proved to be a hit with passengers at first but it was destined to be a fairly short-lived return.
Due in no small part to poor weather conditions and associated rough sea states (the HM2 could not operate in waves of over 4.5 feet high) allied to some mechanical problems, the HM2 service failed to make a profit in the summer of 1970. Laid up over the winter, the craft returned to service in 1971. Unlike the previous summer, however, she did not operate to a published schedule and was withdrawn from service that September and eventually sold back to her manufacturers. And with her departure came the end of the brief era of scheduled hovercraft services from Largs.
