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Barry Boswell

The HoverHunter is, as the name implies, a hovercraft built for fishing, waterfowling, and general exploration of the estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Shown above is the HoverHunter parked on a mud flat in a salt marsh on the Upper Texas Coast. My buddy Bob is seen in the background trying out new fly patterns.

HoverHunter is based on the 14' Vanguard Surface Effects Vehicle (SEV) designed by Barry Palmer at SEVTEC . Barry has designed a family of air cushion vehicles that have gained wide popularity among home boat builders. A tour of his website will familiarize you with the many unique features of SEVTEC designs. For those who are attracted to this form of water craft but find the prospect of building one beyond their interests or abilities, Brian Phillips at Amphibious Marine Technology offers the completed product for sale.

The events that led to the building of the HoverHunter began in a Texas Coastal salt marsh. The opportunities for waterfowling and fishing in these marshes are outstanding. However, many are accessible only in very shallow draft boats. Although I overcame this in my younger years by "walking in", slogging through a mile or more of marsh with a bag of decoys on my back will caused me to consider alternatives when I hit age 50. It was just such a duck hunt that inspired the HoverHunter.

The entire craft is a composite structure. The core of this composite is a structural urethane foam brand named Last-A-Foam. This product is available from General Plastics, Inc. in a wide variety of densities and thicknesses. The actual assembly of the HoverHunter is also unusual. The basic technique is to create individual hull panels with the fiberglass skins lamintated to the foam core. These panels are then joined together and the joints filled with a resin putty fillet covered with layers of fiberglass mat and cloth. This is a straight forward technique similar to the very popular "stitch and glue" method. For more information on composite construction check out the Marine Composites link.

These photos show some of the early construction and detail of the rod & gun holders under the side decks.

This photo shows the bow of the vehicle prior to the installation of the bow skirt. As can been seen, this compartment is divided into 2 sections. Each section is individually ventable to allow both braking and to slightly roll the vehicle into turns. The photo below shows the bow after the skirt was installed. In this case, the port vent is open.

We gathered reinforcements for the first test firing of the engine.

To my delight (and amazement) the thing actually fired up, the skirt inflated, and we were "on cushion".

Hayley took care of christening duties with a bottle of Shiner Bock.

Here I am leaving the launch area on the first run.