The personal Hovercraft is back – and it is almost affordable

That pesky Channel Tunnel! Before Eurostar opened it doors there was only one cool way to get to the, ahem,continent, and that was by Hovercraft. Sadly almost all the Hovercraft operators saw the writing on the wall and the only place you can get a scheduled trip by the best and fastest way of traversing water these days is on the Isle of Wight.

Unless of course you have a spare £13,400.00 kicking around. For Hammacher Schlemmer, which seem to have recently opened an online UK version of their amazing gadgets emporium, is now offering this two person Hovercraft.

The tech stuff is that glides on a 20 cm cushion of air over water and land at speeds of up to 100 kph. It boasts a 60-horsepower two-cylinder, air-cooled gasoline engine drives its 91 cm 12-bladed fan.

And while it is designed for use on water it can also scoot across ice, sand, mud, snow, or grass.

It is simple to control too as long as you cay work your way round the handlebars that control the Hovercraft’s four rudders for steering and the right handle grip throttle which controls speed.

It is approved by the US coastguard, though you might have to check before you head out to sea the UK.

If you have a lot more money to spare then Firebox has this, which frankly looks amazing, and you don’t need a pilot’s license to drive it (ulp).