{{Use British English, date=May 2017 Hovercraft leaving Ryde

The

Griffon Hoverwork Griffon Hoverwork Ltd (GHL) is a British hovercraft designer and manufacturer. It was originally founded as Griffon Hovercraft Ltd in 1976, based in Southampton. The firm set about the development of its own product range, launching its first ...

BHT130 is a medium-size

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious Craft (vehicle), craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull ...

, designed by Hoverwork and fitted out in St Helens. The type was found to be unsuitable and was withdrawn after 4 years in service (2007-2011). As a civil passenger hovercraft it seats up to 130 passengers, hence the numerics in its name, the first welded aluminium hull (fabricated by Aluminium Ship Builders,

Fishbourne, Isle of Wight Fishbourne is a village between Wootton and Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. The name "Fishbourne" might mean "stream of fish" or "fish spring." It is positioned on the eastern bank of Wootton Creek, and includes the terminal for the Wightlink c ...

) arrived at Hoverwork's St Helens works in August 2005. The first of its kind, named the ''Solent Express'' entered cross-

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to ...

service on 14 June 2007; also, in the July of the same year, it was put on trial at a new passenger service between

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

and

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

across the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

in Scotland. It remained in service on the Solent until 2011 when it was laid up at Griffon Hoverwork.

Technical specifications

*29.3 m long *15 m beam *70 tonne all up weight *Service speed over water 45 knots *130 passengers *4 crew *Lift engines - 2 x MTU 12V2000-R1237K37 diesels - each producing 675kW *Propulsion engines - 2 x MTU 16V2000-R1637K37 diesels producing 899kW *2 x 3.5-metre-diameter, five-bladed, variable-pitch propellers for propulsion Hovercraft Ships built on the Isle of Wight