Please be aware that due to the recent adverse weather conditions key winter work could not be completed in time. For this reason we have postponed our opening day by a week to the 23rd Feb 19 to account for this. We hope to see you soon and apologise for any inconvenience.
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Great news!
In addition to being a unique museum in our own right, we are now unique for a different reason as we have just had our BH7 Hovercraft added to the national ships register alongside such famous vessels such as HMS Victory and The Mary Rose.
Did you know that we now have FOUR craft listed on the National Historic Ships’ Register – a feat we don’t believe has been achieved by any other museum in the UK!
The craft listed are:
- SRN4 “The Princess Anne”
- BH7
- SRN5 “006”
- SRN6 “Sea Hawk”
To make it even more special in 2019 both BH7 and The Princess Anne will be 50 years old. Why not celebrate by paying a visit and seeing once again these magnificent craft.
We’re open New Years Day!
Come by and visit us on New Years Day 2019 – we’ll be open 12pm to 4pm.
Santa is on his way!
Santa is adding to his already busy schedule this Christmas by making a very special visit to the Hovercraft Museum on Saturday 15th December. Santa will be giving out gifts (and coal) free of charge between 10:00 and 12:00.
Normal entry prices apply and include a Santa visit and gift at no extra cost. Santa’s time is limited and is on a “first come, first serve” basis so don’t miss out. We hope to see you soon!
Watch us on Flog It!
Earlier last year Flog It! visited us at Lee on the Solent to shoot a segment for series 16 – with presenter Paul Martin even taking a ride on a hovercraft! You can watch this episode live on BBC1 this Monday (3rd December 2018) at 16:30. The episode will be available for 28 days after this broadcast on BBC iPlayer. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed filming it!
Support us by playing the Gosport Lottery
We have recently joined the Gosport Lottery which supports many local causes including ourselves. Please consider supporting us and the local community with a small weekly, or one-time play, and have the chance to win a grand prize of £25,000, among other smaller prizes, in the process!
For every ticket sold in support of the Hovercraft Museum we directly get 40% of the ticket revenue with a further 20% going to the other charitable causes supported by The Gosport Lottery. Furthermore, the chances of winning a prize is 1 in 50 for each ticket played in a week. The Trust will use the proceeds raised to help preserve the Princess Anne which is the last surviving cross-channel hovercraft. The proceeds will also aid in establishing a learning zone on “The Anne” to support the local community and provide a space to provide hovercraft related education.
To play follow this link or head to the Gosport Lottery website and search for “The Hovercraft Museum Trust”. Your ticket will benefit The Hovercraft Museum Trust, the local community, and hopefully make you a winner!
The Princess Anne is Officially Recognised as a Historic Vessel
We are very excited to announce that “The Princess Anne” is now on the National Historic Ships Register!
Many thanks indeed go to all at National Historic Ships UK for their help in this important process of recognising the historic significance of the largest commercial hovercraft ever built and, of course, many thanks to our volunteers who work tirelessly to preserve not only this craft but also another 55 in the collection.
Follow the progress of “Anne” on our sister Facebook page, SRN4 Restoration and check out the other vessels on the registers at www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk
You can come and visit The Princess Anne and climb aboard any Saturday between 10am and 4pm.
Scrapping of “Margaret”
An official statement regarding the SRN4 Hovercraft at Lee-on-the-Solent:
“As many of you are aware by now ex-cross Channel Hovercraft, SRN4 “The Princess Margaret”, is currently being dismantled for recycling and cleared from the Daedalus Site in Lee-on-the-Solent.
The Hovercraft Museum has never owned or leased the craft despite her being on our doorstep since arriving in December 2000, nearly 18 years ago now!
In late 2016 we were able to work very closely with new owners of the craft, the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England) to secure the lease of the identical sister craft, “The Princess Anne” and formally bring her into the collection, preserving her as fully accessible static exhibit for the Nation.
It is still expected for us to take formal ownership at the end of this lease period, as agreed.
Again, working closely with Homes England and their contractors, we have been able to save many components and artefacts from the “Margaret” and fully document the dismantling process.
These components are vital in helping to secure the long term future of the “Anne” and we are very grateful for their and everyone else’s support over the past couple of years.
Although we are sad to see “The Princess Margaret” go, we now move forward and plan to accelerate our restoration work on “The Princess Anne”, the largest commercial Hovercraft ever built and holder of two Guiness World records, over the coming months.
If you would like to get involved in our project, or any other aspects of the Museum (we have over 55 other Hovercraft in the collection as well!) please get in contact with us, we would love to hear from you.
Also, standby for exciting news regarding some of the surplus components recovered that you will be interested to hear about over the coming weeks”
The Hovercraft Museum Trust
Museum Closure – Poor Weather
Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions forecast for this weekend, we have taken the difficult decision to remain closed for this weekend (Saturday 3rd March). This is due to concerns about the safety of our guests and volunteers as the ground is slippery underfoot and we are not able to adequately treat the surface to remove ice. We expect to be opening on our regular schedule by Saturday 10th March. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we hope to see you soon!
Museum Update
After the first Trustees’ meeting of 2018 we felt that a general museum update would be a great way to start off the year. We have made some great strides over the last year both, as a visitor attraction and as an organisation. We have been able to offer fantastically researched and presented tours, improved facilities to our guests in the form of a renovated cafe/shop area, and we have been able to add new exhibits to our collection with a few more to follow this year. Our membership and volunteer numbers have grown in the last year and we are thankful for all the hard work they have put in already!
For this coming year we have invested in our toilet facilities by adding disabled facilities (which are almost complete), upgrading our toilet area, creating new baby changing facilities, and further updating our shop with new products. Coming out of our winter period closure, our financial position is as we predicted – stable and we are ready to build up our finances as the new season moves on to allow us to further invest in the museum. As with many volunteer-run museums, the majority of our funding comes from visitor entry fees and goodwill donations. With this in mind we remain in the black and, in contrast to previous years, have not needed to liquidate any museum assets to meet the museum’s liabilities as has been necessitated in previous years.
Our 2015-16 accounts have now been finalised and are now with the Charities Commission. Unfortunately, due to questions with the accounts that required attention, our accountant was unable to complete the accounts until these particular issues were explained. As the current trustees were not in office during this period it was more difficult to promptly resolve these issues. These have now been submitted and viewable online on the Charity Commission’s website, although, due to a clerical error with the submission, our accounts have been incorrectly marked as “qualified”. This is reflected in our Accountant’s statement in our submission which gives us a good bill of financial health. In addition, the values showed on the main summary page for the Hovercraft Museum Trust show that our income and outgoings match exactly which is not accurate. This is due to the full credit and debit line totals being shown for the 2015-16 period on the summary page, whereas, it should be showing the same values less our starting and ending cash balances. Both these clerical errors are in the process of being corrected by the Charity Commission. Keep an eye on the Charity Commission’s website for our 2016-17 accounts which are to be submitted on time shortly.
Visitors and members regularly ask about “The Princess Anne”, but if you are not in the know you would be forgiven for thinking they were asking about one of the Royal Family! In fact, they are talking about our largest and most famous exhibit – one of two remaining SRN4 cross-Channel hovercraft that served for over 30 years in the English Channel taking over 400 people and 60 cars at a time. Our restoration work is ongoing, mainly thanks to our SRN4 fund that has been greatly supported by the local community and people from all around the world. In the past year, we have introduced various sound effects on the craft and opened up new areas such as the lift fan bays and toilets safely by securing them with Perspex. We also had to invest in the electrical system onboard to allow adequate power for essential lighting and power tools to aid restoration. To date, we have raised £8005, which has been well spent, chiefly on putting on new propellers from a donor craft, roof repairs, electrical work and painting. The craft is 49 years old in 2018 and we want to ensure she remains in good condition for future generations to enjoy. For the coming year, we will be completing a full repaint in Seaspeed livery, going back to metal where required to fix points of corrosion and working on a more permanent solution for the leaking roof which will ensure that interior components do not deteriorate any further.
The museum has been on its current site for around 20 years but has never enjoyed security of tenure. This has been the main reason why major funding has never been achieved. Due to the hard work from the last two years since we opened to the public on a weekly basis, we have had a great number of happy visitors which is getting us noticed. Behind the scenes, much work is being done to ensure the future of the museum on its current site. A “2020 Vision” booklet has been created and contains our aspirations for the near future and we have been sharing these concepts with interested parties. The official word from Gosport Borough Council is that the museum’s future is secure and we will keep you updated as best we can.
After many years of opening a few days a year for summer events, the museum is now able to open every Saturday (and Wednesday in the school holiday periods) with only volunteer support. We have built up a partnership with Hovertravel and some 30 special events are planned at the museum during 2018, including hovercraft pleasure trips from the “Lee” slipway and other hovercraft tours and excursions within the Solent. We have positive discussions taking place with hovercraft manufacturers to promote hovercraft to a wider audience and multiple TV crews completing productions ready for broadcast this year featuring the Hovercraft Museum.
We would like to thank our small, but dedicated, team of volunteers who work tirelessly. The trustees want to place on record the enormous appreciation for the work they do and the time they give up. Finally, we would like to further extend our appreciation to all our supporters from around the world – the buzz and interest in this museum has been extremely valuable to the museum and the wider hovercraft sector.