[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

Why not store your craft at a boat yard just like boat owners do  I know a couple of people who do exactly that.  A hovercraft doesn't need to be stored inside a building.

A craft over 8ft wide (2.46m) in the UK would need special arrangements for transportation including a police authorised escort.

Not quite - trailer law (like a lot of UK law) is horrendously complicated!  Loads over 3.2m wide need to notify county police two weeks in advance  (they don't need an escort though).

In the real world, for most "domestic" vehicles you are limited to a trailer of 7m x 2.3m weighing no more than the vehicle manufacturer tells you it should.  The 7m length does NOT include the hitch or drawbar and, if the load can't be split (a hovercraft!) then you are exempt from the 7m length (glider trailers, etc but NOT from the weight limits).

Your "load" (the hovercraft) can overhang the  trailer by 305mm PER SIDE and 1-2m at the rear (if you tie a warning rag to it) or up to 3m at the rear if you put a light board on the load.

All this means that you can quite legally tow a 10m x 2.9m hull size hovercraft on UK roads (with a trailer load bed of 7m x 2.3m).

It is perfectly possible to make a hover trailer/load combination weight less than 750Kg (easy for small craft) and, provided your tow vehicle weighs at least twice the trailer laden weight, you don't even need to fit trailer brakes (I used an unbraked 8m x 2.3m 700Kg trailer for years)!

[rossfloyd Posts: 2025 Status: Offline]

My 2 seat BBV2  with a Rotax 503 ( twin carb/twin mag ) and solo 210 would use anything up to 7 gallons/hour - but usually about 3 for normal  cuising. But it did go quite fast!
 
Our 'new' BBV3 with a Honda 8.5 lift and B/S 35 thrust burns 1.5 gallons/hour in most conditions.
 
You may find some useful information and photos on our website http://www.farvis.com/hoversrn4.htm
 
Best regards,
 
Ross

[John Robertson Posts: 5137 Status: Offline WWW]

Thanks for the reply, but for point 2: In Holland the most people have to pay for the storage of there boats because they have no space to do it there selves. So the most important question of that part is: Does a hovercraft needs special treatment to be stored or will a normal storage place be fine?

The answer is no - in fact, storing a hovercraft should be easier as it doesn't need a trailer and can be moved around on land under its own power.

It is very difficult to give an average fuel consumption as there are many factors involved.  I would suggest you use load/speed/power to give a rough comparison (for example, a 4 seat hovercraft travelling at 40mph would need around 72hp, a 4 seat boat at 40mph needs 100-120hp).  As fuel consumption is a function of power output, the hovercraft would consume around 28-40% less fuel than the boat.