A Davis Weather Wizard III stands guard over the Hovercraft ferry in Southsea in the United Kingdom.

.Our UK distributor, McMurdo, wrote to let us know that they had installed a Weather Wizard III and WeatherLink at the Hovertravel waterfront in Southsea, on Great Britain’s south coast. This is cool, first, because it is a Davis weather station, of course, and second, because it is helping folks get from Southsea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight via hovercraft ferry! The 70-metric-ton vessel whisks 130 folks across the Solent in just 10 minutes. It is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft operation.

Hovercraft are amazing amphibious vehicles. Fans pull air into a flexible structure under the hull that traps it between the hull and the surface. As soon as the air pressure underneath the craft exceeds the force of gravity, the craft rises and hovers. This means almost no friction and very little power needed to move the craft forward. It also means that the surface is almost irrelevant. No piers are needed, because the ferry can just glide up over the beach. Hovercraft cause no wake, don’t damage plants, can cruise over shallow or rocky water, and are quiet.

The Isle of Wight has its own weather station network, featuring, of course, Vantage Pro2 data.

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