Hovercraft just got a major boost as a potential source of ferry service on the Bay as Water Emergency Transit Authority (WETA) directors voted to begin a formal evaluation of the boats that float on a cushion of air.
BY DAN ROSENHEIM
Published: July, 2019
Hovercraft just got a major boost as a potential source of ferry service on the Bay as Water Emergency Transit Authority (WETA) directors voted to begin a formal evaluation of the boats that float on a cushion of air.
The decision to spend about $500,000—and possibly more—on a hovercraft feasibility study was not unexpected. Interest in the flying boats has grown steadily in ferry circles since last fall when WETA’s executive director and others joined a Bay Area Council tour of hovercraft operations in the south of England. But the 4-0 vote to invest in a study, which came at WETA’s June 6 directors meeting, provides a tangible endorsement to a project that only a year ago seemed more like a pipe dream. And the study that WETA will now fund is significantly larger than was originally envisioned.
WETA Planning Manager Kevin Connolly told the meeting the agency will now evaluate up to five potential hovercraft routes, compared to two routes when the study was first discussed by the board in April. Connolly said he expects to survey the viability of hovercraft to towns in the Carquinez Strait and South Bay, but also for a potential run from Treasure Island to San Francisco and conceivably even to replace or augment some existing central Bay ferry runs.
“We know that what we have now won’t work across the whole Bay,” said WETA Chair Jody Breckenridge. “Is hovercraft transit feasible? Is it economical? We’ve asked the staff to look at hovercraft operations across the globe to see what we can learn from them.”
The study is expected to take a year and will incorporate the views of a wide variety of maritime industry, public policy and government organizations. Connolly said WETA plans to look at capital and operating costs, as well as potential maintenance facilities, and it will seek comparisons to traditional catamaran ferry costs.
Along with economic viability, proponents will have to convince regulators, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, that the boats floating on a cushion of air do not cause undue environmental harm. Noise pollution has been a concern, as have been emissions and disruption to wildlife. But traditional ferries and the dredging they often require come with an environmental cost as well. And the opportunities for hovercraft are many and varied, not only in broadening commuter service, but also in potentially providing freight service between Bay Area airports and for use in emergency response.
The airboats have special value in an emergency because they can land just about anywhere there’s a beach—dock or no dock. Coincidentally, just two days before the WETA meeting, the U.S. Navy launched two giant hovercraft from sea for a landing through the surf onto a beach in northern Oregon. The drill was meant to demonstrate the support hovercraft could provide in ferrying people and material in the event of a feared 9.0 Cascadia earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.
“This opens up a whole new world for us,” Jim Wunderman, BAC president and vice chair of WETA’s board, said of the board vote. “It’s completely appropriate for WETA to take the lead in looking at the viability of hovercraft, and it’s very exciting.”
