Island Express :

Hover grounded after ‘huge grinding noise’ from engine while at sea

One of HoverTravel’s hovercraft experienced an engine failure this morning.

Passengers on the 08:00 service from Ryde to Southsea reported a “huge grinding noise“.

Regular Hovertravel commuter Adam Manning was also on board when the engine failed.

Left engine failure
Adam told OnTheWight that it was the left engine that failed. When asked how far out was it and how did it made it back to Ryde, he replied, “It went about the same distance out as the end of the pier, so it wasn’t too far back! Just a bit slower and a bit wonky!

No updates from Hovertravel
OnTheWight has been in touch with Hovertravel and is waiting to hear back with more information.

Their Service Status information hasn’t been updated since 6:10am and is still reporting a normal service.

Image: Access Denied under CC BY 2.0

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stultorum infinitus numerus est
28, February 2011 3:30 pm

This is all fine, but could I just add two things? 1)When you have the opportunity to form a large ‘opposition’ group – please, don’t be shy about scrutinising the ruling group or coming forward/publicising anything you are not comfortable with. You mentioned years of burying heads in the sand. The 1st many Islanders heard of it was within the last 3 months! 2)When a colleague offers… Read more »

playingthenumbers
Reply to  stultorum infinitus numerus est
28, February 2011 4:46 pm

Thanks VB for the link to the BBC website trailing tonight’s show on the region’s highways. A little compare & contrast. Kent CC need £250 million for their 5K miles of roads, that is about £50k per mile. IW Council want from the PFI deal nearly £1bn (of total investment) for 500 miles of roads over 25 yrs, or (£1bn ÷ 500) ÷ 25 = £80k per… Read more »

Haulage Bob
Reply to  playingthenumbers
28, February 2011 6:19 pm

Kent council don’t need to import all that tarmac, the Island does and we all know how much that costs. Wightlink and Red Funnel are looking forward to a haulage lorry bonanza, I certainly am, as are my drivers!

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes will be coming over, the tarmac plant on the Island couldn’t cope with these volumes so it’s imports.

Lido
Reply to  Haulage Bob
1, March 2011 8:50 am

Hope you’re right Bob. Of course if I were the contractor, I would want all my trucks liveried in my company colours and driven by my drivers. Even better if I could get the Council to pay for it. Did you see the TV show last night, why wouldn’t Colas use their Pompey supplies & drivers to bring the Tarmac over? I would, cross charge a sister… Read more »

Paying For Island roads
Reply to  playingthenumbers
28, February 2011 10:02 pm

Not sure where you got 1 billion from. £360M is the amount approved but that will dwindle as the con-dems will say there is not enough money in the pot. I doubt we will see £200M but we will still have to pay £11M per year for 25 years. What will be cut to pay that off? going back to the numbers, us islanders will be paying… Read more »

no.5
Reply to  Paying For Island roads
28, February 2011 10:19 pm

we are actually handing over our roads budget, so the money doesn’t come from anywhere else.

Trouble is IOW Council has never spent the full budget before and used the money for ‘other things’

playingthenumbers
Reply to  Paying For Island roads
28, February 2011 10:46 pm

Take the £360 million government grant + the £105million of senior debt + indexation and inflation plus the interest and council contribution 80:20

Bingo approaching £1billion

The figures are in the council’s outline business case

Mike Judge
Reply to  playingthenumbers
28, February 2011 11:25 pm

The millions already spent on our PFI would be far better spent just fixing the roads. Turning the Island’s road surfaces into billiard tables is desirable, but not essential. Most of us would rather have decent social services, libraries and public toilets. If as we saw on the BBC Portsmouth already resent the £24 million per year they have to pay their contractor, then just imagine how… Read more »

DaveQ
28, February 2011 3:37 pm

Thanks Cllr Churchman, so much for the ruling groups “there is no alternative” (I wonder where they stole that sound bite from?). As far as the last comment went “you might be in DPs position in 2 years time”- I and many others sincerely hope so.

islebeseeingyou
Reply to  DaveQ
28, February 2011 4:18 pm

Please no. Not Vanessa (Bottom) Churchman in DP’s place. There must be others! All in all though she is doing better than DP.

Anon
28, February 2011 3:56 pm

just because you are too old to use the gym, doesn’t give you the right to purpose scraping their improvements. Yes young children and seniors don’t use it, but us 16-65 olds who pay our council tax and the gym fee do.

Smoke and Mirrors
28, February 2011 3:56 pm

“stultorum infinitus numerus est” – “Infinite is the number of fools”, could this be an alter-ego of Maximus perchance?

stultorum infinitus numerus est
Reply to  Smoke and Mirrors
28, February 2011 4:16 pm

Nope, I’ll quickly disabuse of that.

I simply picked it today as a reference to the subjects of what I consider is most of the today’s blog comments. Don’t worry I’ll be back to the normal soon.

no.5
Reply to  stultorum infinitus numerus est
28, February 2011 4:54 pm

or alternatively an accurate discription of the ruling party at County Hall !!

montana sliver
28, February 2011 4:28 pm

Infinite is the number of previous pseudonyms

DaveQ
28, February 2011 4:48 pm

some of us are not so worried that we have to hide behind pseudonyms- stand up man and face those you criticise

stultorum infinitus numerus est
28, February 2011 4:58 pm

I bet you’re saying that to all the: Anon, no.5, citizen ken, wabbit, smoke and mirrors, islebeseeingyou, Montana sliver, John, etc then Q?

no.5
Reply to  stultorum infinitus numerus est
28, February 2011 5:04 pm

Ah! but we are nobodies…you pretend to be ‘somebody’ :)

stultorum infinitus numerus est
Reply to  no.5
28, February 2011 5:36 pm

Crikey! It’s just a pen name. 1) Unlike you I prefer not to be a number, but I fully recognise & support your inalienable right to do so if you wish. 2) I am not pretending to be any more of a person than anyone else on this blog. It is my understanding that all comments carry equal weighting. 3) My postings today have been encouragement, not… Read more »

no.5
Reply to  stultorum infinitus numerus est
1, March 2011 12:38 am

No.5 is not just a number, but has broader meaning, its acctually farly presumptive and indicates a persona that doesn’t fit me.

May not be drawn from the classic languages, but its source spoke to millions across the world.

Wannadance

and I’m already over it

mark francis
Reply to  no.5
1, March 2011 10:32 am

I only use the name “Mark Francis” to disguise my real one of Lampedusa Snatterquoin…

Don Smith
28, February 2011 10:27 pm

I understand your jest stultorum infinitus numerus est – Greti un moto cogiti.

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