See below what HovPod owners are saying about their fun boats
- “Why I bought a HovPod?”
Bellow you can see a letter from one of the HovPod owners, which will hopefully answer some of your questions or concerns about this amazing hovercraft.
25th November 2004 | to whom it may concern
Why I'm Glad I Chose a HovPod
After a long-term passion for hovercraft, I decided this year to investigate the different types of small pleasure hovercraft available. I was quite shocked at some of the things I discovered. I'd like to share some of my experiences with you so you don't make the same mistakes I did.
I began my search on the Internet and headed for eBay to see what was available. The craft I found were old, self made, tatty, racing hovercraft that looked half decent but had NO regards for safety whatsoever! I asked myself "Where are the decent hovercrafts, the trendy, safe, reliable and smart looking hovercraft that you would expect".
I continued searching through eBay until I found a small hovercraft advertised for £2500. It looked quite nice and the owner told me that it was a lot of fun to pilot. I purchased and collected this hovercraft but to be honest wish I had never brought it, here's why:
- Very difficult to get on and off of the trailer, two or three adults required to load or unload.
- Extremely noisy. I received several noise complaints within an hour.
- No consideration for safety; no rear fan blade guard so goodbye fingers if they get too close!
- Constant “ploughing-in” on land and water. My friend and I were thrown off the hovercraft several times and hurt.
- Hardly any steering control at all, at 30mph you would turn the rudder and nothing happened. It was uncontrollable!
- The quality of build was untidy and rough; although designed for a marine environment, no stainless steel parts, just very rusty ones.
- Only a single skin hull, when we stopped on the water we started to get water inside the hovercraft. Good job we had bailers!
- No hull impact bumpers/protection whatsoever, if you stopped on the smallest of stones/rocks the floor was likely to crack open!
- The seating was just a solid fiberglass hump that was very painful on the rear after ten minutes.
- No engine housing, a very difficult pull starter that sometimes took seven or eight pulls to start.
I only used the hovercraft about five or six times because it was just too dangerous and frightening to take my friends out on. It took me several months to sell it and I lost money when I did.
So my search continued for a more reliable, safe, well designed hovercraft. I went to visit another hovercraft manufacturer and discovered the following:
- Their brand new hovercrafts had second-hand car engines from scrap in, Shocking! Would you buy a new car with a second-hand engine?
- Some of their hovercraft hulls are made in sections and then cut & shut together much like a car. This is illegal in the motor trade, so why stand for this unsafe practice when it comes to hovercrafting?
- Safety was at the bottom of the spec. list, no rear fan blade guards were available because I was told it hinders airflow, hence less speed. I would rather go a couple of mph slower and feel confident that nothing will get caught in the fan.
- When I asked about ploughing-in, they told me that all hovercraft plough in and that it's just something you have to put up with! I was not happy about that; ploughing-in is very dangerous.
- Their factory was very unimpressive, a lack of organisation and no apparent quality control.
- When I asked about how easy their hovercraft were to control, they told me that you would need to weight shift all the time to complete turns and that it would not be wise to stop on water!
- I saw some hovercraft they were building for customers and was quite shocked at the shoddy build techniques and the way that the hulls were very messy and flimsy. The company had no professional hull making facilities whatsoever.
- The staff told me that a customer of theirs had returned a hovercraft to them he brought because he had eleven noise complaints in two hours!
- Obtaining spares and contacting the company is question was very difficult, they didn't answer phone calls, text messages, emails, faxes or letters. I soon gave up trying with them and looked elsewhere.
After all my bad experiences I was looking through a list of UK hovercraft manufacturers and saw that there was one local to me in Southampton called HovPod. I searched on the internet for HovPod and found lots of useful information on their website. They had several videos on their website from when the HovPod had appeared on national TV. All the TV interviewers thought it was great! At last I had found a company that were producing just what I had wanted, a fun, safe, reliable, pleasure hovercraft that didn't plough-in, could be steered with just one finger, loaded and unloaded from it's trailer by just one man and one that looked trendy, like my friends jet-ski's! I decided to contact them to find out how much a HovPod was.
I was contacted very quickly and I really liked the professionalism of the staff, they were very knowledgeable about the product and understood the problems I have had with other inferior hovercraft makes.
I was invited to Southampton for a demonstration of just what the HovPod could do, and to my surprise the HovPod was actually better than I had imagined. The instructor took me out for about half an hour and it was so so different from the other hovercrafts I had piloted and been on. The ride was so smooth, the controls were very responsive, and yes it turned when you wanted it to. The seating was comfy, the noise level was not a problem, the build quality was to a very high standard, and to-date it has never ploughed in, the design is trendy and up to date. I took the controls and after ten minutes, was spinning it around in circles and making transitions to and from land to water. I loved its ease of control and stunning looks. I had to have one of my very own! I had a last found what I was dreaming of.
The price of the HovPod was much more than other hovercraft of its size but no other manufacturer could match the build spec and quality that the HovPod has. Not to "plough-in" is a miracle, but the design has taken years of testing. In life it really is true, you pay for what you get and the cheaper products are usually ****! So the price of the HovPod was well worth it to give me safe, reliable and exciting hovercrafting that my friends and family can enjoy.
I have owned my HovPod since August 2004 and have over thirty hours of flying time on the clock. I have used my HovPod named 'Lucky 7' all over the UK, On the Isle of Wight, Kent, London, Portsmouth, Southampton and not received one complaint from the public or authorities. The reliability of the engine has been fantastic, I have not needed to replace any parts as yet and it runs perfect like the first day I took her out for her maiden voyage. I have operated on surfaces such as sand, water, mud, grass, gravel, concrete, tarmac, clay/seaweed, wood, marshland etc and the HovPod has outperformed any other hovercraft I have owned.
Every single part of a HovPod is new, the hulls are professionally made in a famous Southampton boat builders, the engines are aviation spec and are extremely reliable, the overall build quality is to a very high standard, safety is of paramount importance, control of the craft is excellently balanced to allow for tight turns without weight shifting. The skirts are durable and easy to maintain, general maintenance is also easy and simply to perform, the twin-skin hull and impact protection bumpers give peace of mind when out at sea. There are so many other features, too many to list here. Take a look for yourself and compare the HovPod to other hovercraft you have found.
The ability to take my friends and family out on the HovPod is just great, we go all over the place and really enjoy going to places where no other watercraft dare not go, such as sandbanks, creeks, tidal rivers, low water harbors etc. There is so much you can do with a HovPod that you just can't manage in any other type of boat or vehicle. I have had my HovPod's graphics designed by Abstract Signs in Southampton and it has a truly British theme to it that all my friends and the public really enjoy, I get cheers and looks everywhere I and the HovPod go.
Friends that I have taken on the HovPod and let control it are so surprised how simply to control it is and easy it is to pick it up in a short time, one of them was pulling 360's in the first five minutes! I have now been flying HovPod for about four months now and can say that it turns on the button and all it takes is your little finger. The amount of fun maneuvers you can pull on the HovPod is amazing, traveling in two directions at once, 360's, sideways fans, all terrain transitions, unlimited spins. It's just pure fun with a capital F!
After-sales service is great, spares are quick, easy and inexpensive to obtain, I can rate HovPod as being a fantastic manufacturer and if anyone asks me I would definitely recommend HovPod to anyone out there looking for a new exciting hovercraft as a toy for next summer or a serious bit of kit for work/business. Try the rest and then buy the best. You’ll be glad you chose a HovPod in the long run.
In a nutshell the HovPod is a pleasure to pilot.
I hope this helps you in deciding what pleasure hovercraft to purchase now or in the future, I have told you my story and wish that I had found HovPod in the first place, it would have saved me a lot of time, effort, injury and money.
Sincerely,
Alex
- Quotes form HovPod customers
Here are some of the things our customers had to say about their leisure crafts, after enjoying their hovercrafts to the full (their quotes are reproduced exactly as said):
HovPod Customer Norway:
“I think the ease of maintenance is understated for the HovPod. In total my impression so far is that it is inexpensive and easy to own.”
HovPod Customer from India:
“This is just like a magic carpet!”
HovPod Customer UK:
“When we collected the HovPod from the factory, on our journey home, just after exiting the M25, the motorist behind, flashed us to pull over, to ask where to get one.”
HovPod dealer in the UK:
We recently received these comments from people on HovPod experience days:
"I can truly say that the HovPod is a pleasure to pilot!!"
"Words cannot describe the feeling of hovering off the ground and sliding sideways down a football pitch, you should have seen the looks I got by the footballers!"
This is what ex championship powerboat racer Stephen Reynolds had to say about his HovPod experience: "I was very impressed that when we flew into the water I wasn't soaked, having previously owned a triple engined hovercraft I have had some very bad wet experiences! HovPod was so different, easy to control, safe to be aboard.... It was so smooth and I couldn't notice the difference when we hit land again, very shocked in this hovercrafts performance indeed.... I would highly recommend the HovPod to all."
HovPod dealer in the UK
We recently received this comment from a lady on the experience day, "Better than sex!"
HovPod owner in Dubai
"We have just taken delivery of our craft and did the first test-driving at a beautiful Creek with blue warm water and white sand. As I went there, a lot of huge cars followed me and the people were very curious during the unloading. I went back to land after a few spins and turns. Since this I need at least 2 salesmen! I gave out more then 20 business cards within 5 minutes. It was amazing, same story today. I believe we can run a brilliant business over here."
"We have now had our hovpod for three weeks and have been using it for up to 10 hours a day and it's fantastic!"
HovPod owner in Johannesburg, South Africa
"On my first trip out with the HovPod towed on the trailer behind my truck I could not believe the response! At every set of traffic lights people were honking their horns at me and asking me where they could buy one."
HovPod customer from Greece
"Everyone should have one."
Panicky comment from HovPod customer from Turkey
"Why are you stopping? You cannot stop on the water!" (What he didn’t know was that the HovPod can stop on water, it will not sink, and can get started carrying three adults at up to 550 or 727 pounds depending on engine size)
Then at the end of the demonstration - "It is like a Rolls Royce compared to everything else I have seen."
Other quotes from UK Hovpod customers
"I was able to maneuver the HovPod within centimetres of the GPS coordinates. (Mud sampling) I was able to spin it on the spot and set it down in exactly the right position."
"Thank you for our first experience on the HovPod, it was absolutely fantastic!!"
"It was a wonderful experience and we would like to commend you all on your product, your business and honest approach to all you are trying to achieve."
"I did 17 spins in one stunt, can anyone beat my record?"
"I took the HovPod down the River Thames on my first try-out. 150 people gathered to watch me take off."
"I am really surprised, all the other craft I used I had to nearly lean out of the craft to get to turn, I can turn this on a sixpence without any effort or movement."
"The finish is outstanding, the other craft I looked at had rough edges, rusting everywhere and looked very untidy."
"This still operates at such low speeds and at high speed it never dipped or dug in once, other craft I used dug in all the time and were pigs to turn."