This seemed to spark a bit of interest in my LJ, so I thought I'd mention it here, too.

Last weekend, as part of my brother's Stag do, (Bachelor party), we went hovercraft racing. Well, not actual racing as such, but timed laps against each other.

It is THE most fun I have had in a very long time.

To start with, the craft itself is about eight feet long with a massive fan on the back, like those airboats they use in the everglades, powered by a massive petrol engine. It also powers the fan that inflates the skirt. There is a cockpit that is about half the length of the craft. It has a central bench seat that you straddle and a steering bar like motorbike handlebars. The throttle is like a bikes' brake lever. The cockpit is so big you rattle around in it, which is apparently the point, as you have to throw your weight around to help you steer. Interestingly, the weight of the pilot is a trade-off between being heavy which helps you steer and being light which helps you go faster.

The steering. Ah yes. Well, to put it bluntly, there isn't really any to speak of. When you're at full pelt, you have stuff all contact with the ground, so you have all the cornering ability of an oil supertanker. To steer, you have to yank the handlebars hard over. This points you in the direction you want to be going. Meanwhile, you're still travelling just as fast in the old direction. (If you've ever oversteered a car into a hairpin, you'll have a little idea of what it's like.) This means, in order to get round the corner you have to start planning it about 100 yards before you need to turn. Then you get there and realise you should have actually started to turn about 200 yards before that. You need to lean into the corners to get the bubble of air under the craft to start going the way you want to go. Then it's just a matter of pointing that way and waiting for momentum in the old direction to slow while the fan pushes you in the new. I reckon it'd be possible to do a full 360 and not change your direction of travel, with practice.

Brakes. Again, none to speak of. The only way to really slow down is to let off the throttle, which stops the fan, deflates the skirt and lets the craft sink to the ground. Then the toughened fibreglass base scrapes along and stops you.

The best part is zooming around on a field full of more bumps and craters than the surface of the moon, yet riding serenely over the top with nary a jolt.

A great day out and one I intend to repeat very soon.

Bea"Second overall on the day"sty