Military recon powerboat concept

I have no idea who told you this, and doubt that it's true.

The Mississippi River has been flown up and down by hovercraft for a long time. The former owner of largest plan and kit supplier of hovercraft (Universal Hovercraft) as I understand it lives near there.

The problem I've read about is on the Mississippi, is that the scale, size, speed, direction and strength of barge wake waves is hard to judge.

http://www.hovercraft.com/content/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=147

Some lakes and rivers limit horsepower to help control wakes (speed) and noise. These limits apply to wake-less hovercraft as they are registered as watercraft.

http://firstresponseteam.blogspot.com/2008/06/june-20-2008-clarksville-mo-flood.html
June 20, 2008 - Clarksville, MO Flood

 

Hi, I read the article and didn't seem relevant to the post, it was a water patrol officer who did the inspections for home built boats and he was specific about a hover crafts not being licensed in Mo. On the old muddy, any boat tagged in any ajacent (or any other state) can be moored on the Mo. side. In times of disater I doubt any military or other "official" search and rescue vehicle is subject to the rules for civilians, if someone is assisting officials I don't see some WP Officer writing any tickets. Something about "selective enforcement". Then again, it could be the WP Officer was having a bad day and didn't want to fool with it or look anything up, just saying no! Just passing along what I was told.

If it's really important, I'd suggest you call Jefferson City and ask, or look up the statutes on registration of water craft.

 

Did you look it up before posting this information/misinformation?

 

Nope, not at all! As I said, just passing along what I was told. May be it's the tone I used in pointing out the opinion of the military viablity of designing a boat for "RECON" that was not appreciated that prompted this issue, don't know, I was not meaning to be rude about it.

I have over fifty years of experience on Mo. lakes and rivers and have been on every lake in the state of Mo. and I have never seen a hovercraft on the water, never heard of any accident involving a hovercraft on Mo. waters, never saw one in any boat yard, boat dealership or on any trailer going down the highway. I have been on most of the rivers as well and with the same experience. Having property at Tablerock Lake and being in the community, I just can't recall any fish stories involving any hovercraft.

There is no horsepower limitation on Lake of the Ozarks or Tablerock Lake, so if anyone had a hovercraft with whatever horsepower you'd like to assign, horsepower would not be the reason for a hovercraft not being used.

Aircraft are allowed to take off and land on the two lakes I just mentioned, but then that is an FAA issue and not a hovercraft.

That certainly does not mean that unicorns do not exist in Mo. I'm sure someone could own one. Could be they own one and use it on their own land and private lake or pond, exempt from registration or if registered for personal tax purposes, not used on public waters, I don't know.

If I were more computer savy, I'd go to the statutes and post them, right or wrong, I really wouldn't care.

Obviously you disagree with my opinion based on an out of state factory, the use of hovercraft on the Missippippi and an emergency situation, perhaps other reasons. The factory mentioned is in Il. not Mo., the Missippippi is not just a Mo. waterway. I think what I said was "Missouri waterway", meaning in the state not along the boundry of the state, but you'd be correct in saying that along the shore of that river is under Mo. jurisdiction. Along the Missippippi, there are exceptions to Mo. registration requirements. No, I didn't look that up either, it's common knowledge and inline with maritime regestrations I believe, as recepricol agreements with other states as well as being exempt for non-residents.

And,this is really off topic, it was just a comment based on what Mo. law enforcement here had told me.

All I can say is "show me"! LOL (Mo. is the Show Me State)

 

LOL; I think that I know the guy you talked to, he used to hang out in a bar in Boston called Cheers, and his name is Cliff Clavin.

I do remember St. Louis Hovercraft, they gave rides and made skirts.

Found this, scroll to last page. Hovercraft and Airboats even have their own code.

http://dor.mo.gov/forms/Missouri_Titling_Manual.pdf

Same goes for this repossession form.
http://dor.mo.gov/forms/5005.pdf

Why would they have things on the list which they do not support? They would not, pretty simple.

I cannot find that which does not exist. Feel free to do your homework.

http://dor.mo.gov/motorv/watercraft/

I know there are hovercraft in MO, they are not unicorns.

http://hoverclub.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2450

Here is the HCA events schedule link, might be something near you.
http://hoverclubofamerica.org/content.aspx?page_id=2&club_id=831743

The Hoverclub of America has ambassadors all across the nation, the list is currently down but scheduled to be back up soon.

The old and out of date list has this:
http://hoverclub.invisionzone.com/ContactUs/Ambassadors.html#Missouri

Again, not current and neither is this:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Louis-Hovercraft/204944635254?v=info#info_edit_sections

Say hello to Cliff for me.

 

Well, I didn't get to all those links, but I will later, so I will at least assume you are correct and I was misinformed. That would be my 5th mistake this year! I've still never heard of any, seen any, just have no idea how that happened if they are around, just never saw one and it's not like I wouldn't know what I was looking at....LOL

I'd still like to have one, but that's another topic. No, it wasn't Cheers, probably at Hooters.

And, I totally agree, I'm now getting ready to go to my local pub so that I can study and become a wiser man. Thanks

 

That's nothing my friend, I make that many in a weekend.

EDIT....John Carter posted in the HCA site, passing this along.

http://hoverclub.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2450

 

Sea Brick

I was looking back thru some more recent articles, pics, etc that have become available about Payne's Sea Knife vessel,....

...and I ran across this posting on WarBoats.org "The Sad Saga of the Sea Brick". Looking at the photo that appeared with the article I was once again reminded of the "M Ship" that I had also made a posting about.

Sea Brick

...excerpts
.......number of files spread out on Mr. Mac’s desk in the back of the OP’s office. There were four designs, but the one which caught my eye was the Sea Knife.

The other contenders for what we in Special Boat Squadron termed the “PBM” contract were far less dramatic, a rather blocky semi-surface effect boats..

I asked Mr. Mac and Keith which design they thought was the front runner, hoping that they would say that spectacular Sea Knife, but I was shocked when Mr. Mac replied, “Probably one of the two conventional hulls.” Hey we were in Spec War (Naval Special Warfare), surely we would be getting the latest and greatest, most futuristic design. Little did I realize what the true situation with respect to procurement in Spec War was at the time and where we sat in the Naval hierarchy of the day

Needless to say, we all were very surprised months later, when we learned through the grapevine at Special Boat Squadron that the semi-surface effect craft design was chosen for the PBM contract. It not only flew in the face of my Sea Knife daydreams, but of the more sage and sound predictions of Mr. Mac and Keith Johnson as well as my many other shipmates who were putting their money on the conventional deep V’s. Another fact at the time which did not register then was Rohr Marine Industries (RMI) of National City, California, a local company with no experience in patrol boat design and construction, was awarded the contract.

....more on this story in the weblinked story from Warboats.org (interesting site)
This new vessel was eventually nick named the 'Sea Brick" in stark contrast to her semi-offical name of "Sea Viking"

Why is it I get this same feeling of 'who is making these decisions', and 'what lobbyist/money are driving these decisions when I review the Navy's M-ship project, and the Navy's apparent choice of the more conventional monohull Littorial ship design over the tri-hull design.