Duck and Hover

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Recently, Kvichak has built two hovercraft to float across the broken ice of Alaska. One carries 20 passengers and equipment and the other operates as a ferry and freight service between Alaskan communities. In the San Francisco Bay Area, lawmakers have debated for years about the use of hovercraft as a shuttle service. In Florida, a $9 million, 150-passenger vessel built by Atlas Hovercraft is set to launch in 2008 as a daily passenger service between Miami and Key West.

“These are very versatile craft,” says Kurt Peterson, Kvichak’s founder and president. “A hovercraft can cross a frozen lake or river, go up on a beach to unload and reload and go anywhere in the world. There’s definitely a desire and a need.”

Greased-Marshmallow Ride

Crisman has been hooked on hovercrafts since he was a kid. His father, who had been an engineer for Boeing, started designing the vessels in 1957, and Crisman would sit at the kitchen table and watch him build them in their Seattle home. His father used to say riding in a hovercraft is like “riding on greased marshmallows.” In 3rd grade, young Crisman won first place in the science fair for his creation of a one-man hovercraft powered by a lawn mower engine. His invention became a cover feature in the September 1961 issue of Science and Mechanics magazine along with his father’s machine.

Now, decades later, Crisman wants to see hovercraft take off in Sacramento. Recently retired after 30 years in the hospitality business, Crisman now works as a broker between companies and hovercraft manufacturers, making up to $10,000 per deal.

He knows the site of Hovercraft Park would have to be far away from any residential areas because of the noise element. But he wants the park to be visible from the freeway, so others can see what he has seen for 50 years.

“It looks like stuff straight out of ‘Star Wars,’ but you really can’t understand what a hovercraft is all about until you ride on one,” Crisman says. “People say there are things that are more fun than sex. This is probably one of them.”

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