ONE of the revolutions seen at the Port of Dover with cross-Channel travel was the introduction and eventual departure of those noisy but speedy hovercraft.

It was almost ten years ago, on October 1, 2000 when the last Hoverspeed craft made its final run, and to commemorate the occasion a reunion for pilots, crew members and shore staff is planned this year on Friday, October 1, from 6pm to midnight at The Ramada in Whitfield.

Organiser Brian Laverick-Smith from Deal says: "The reunion is for everyone involved in those good old days."

Hovercraft were first seen commercially operating on cross-Channel routes in 1966, and carried millions of passengers and hundreds of thousands of cars before they were withdrawn, defeated by the increasing cost of fuel and the introduction of the Seacats.

When these noisy beasts first arrived, there were claims hovercraft would herald the end of traditional ferries. In the event, the ferries continue, while hovercraft have departed the Dover Strait.

It was Townsend Car Ferries (the predecessor of P&O Ferries) which in 1966 introduced the passenger-only SRN6 (Britannia) from the Camber at Dover's Eastern Docks. It made no money and the service was soon scrapped. I was a passenger on that first commercial crossing.

In the same year, over in Thanet, Swedish-owned Hoverlloyd pioneered its international hovercraft operations between Ramsgate and Calais, also with the small, passenger-only Westland SRN6 hovercraft named Swift, originally from inside both Ramsgate and Calais harbours.

Before this operation began, I reported on a long planning appeal at Ramsgate during which there were arguments and much controversy over which would be the better UK terminal – Dover or Ramsgate. Dover Harbour Board joined in the row.

In 1968, Seaspeed's car-carrying prototype SRN4, named The Princess Margaret, began operating between Dover's Eastern Docks and Le Portel, Boulogne. The first flight was in June, but the craft was not named by Princess Margaret until August, when commercial operations began. I was a passenger on that first commercial flight, with a scheduled crossing time of 35 minutes.

The service was soon in trouble – In the first 74 days the company cancelled 186 of the 482 scheduled flights.

The arrival of Seaspeed (British Rail Hovercraft) saw the appearance at the port of teams of attractive young women in smart uniforms. This at a time when few women were employed on the Dover ferries or at the docks. Here was a social revolution, and for many young Dover bachelors it was like Christmas had come early!

The two rival companies. Hoverlloyd at Ramsgate and Seaspeed at Dover, competed for passengers and publicity. Hoverlloyd, also with a team of attractive English and French purserettes (some ex-airline girls), soon moved into a purpose-built international hoverport at Pegwell Bay.

Dover-based Seaspeed, now with the second craft named The Princess Anne, enjoyed a shorter crossing route while Hoverlloyd's two craft, Swift and Sure, had to cross the Goodwin Sands – no problem for a hovercraft.

Eventually, years later, Seaspeed won the battle and the two competing companies merged in 1981 to create Hoverspeed, with five craft based at Dover's £14 million, 15-acre Western Docks international hoverport.

But before that happened the French wanted to get into the hovercraft enterprise. The French State-owned railway company SNCF was to provide two Sedam N500 hovercraft to join the Dover operation. But the first was destroyed by fire during trials near Bordeaux. The second N500, Ingenieur Jean Bertin, joined the Seaspeed fleet in 1978. Its advertised top speed was 76 knots but, despite modifications, proved to provide an uncomfortable ride and was returned to SNCF as not suitable for service. In 1985 I saw it being broken up at Boulogne hoverport.

The merged Hoverspeed company continued to capture a significant share of the cross-Channel tourist market, but in the first year of joint operations it just about broke even, in contrast to predicted profits of £4 million as a result of the merger.

In 1984 the British Rail Board and the Swedish interest in the former Hoverlloyd company sold Hoverspeed to the directors of the company for a nominal sum, and within two years it was claimed was making a profit at last.

Two years later the directors sold Hoverspeed for £5 million to James Sherwood's Sea Containers which, in effect, was the beginning of the end of Dover Strait hovercraft operations.

It was a sad, but noisy, last bumpy flight on which my fellow passengers, mostly members of the staff, said goodbye to hovercraft operations at Dover, to be replaced for a short while by the less popular Seacats.

Today the hovercraft have gone to a museum, the once busy international hoverports at Dover and Pegwell Bay demolished, but the memories linger on. Some, like myself, still remember that warm July day in 1959 when the tiny SRN1, with inventor Christopher Cockerell on board, arrived from Calais on to the beach at Dover.

Tickets for the October 1 reunion cost £11, available from Brian Laverick-Smith of Malthouse Cottage, Mongeham Road, Deal CT14 9LP – phone 01304 372920.