Hovercraft cannibalised by museum to preserve another vessel '˜for future generations'

The Princess Margaret is being cannibalised by The Hovercraft Museum at Daedalus, in Lee-on-the-Solent, as part of the project to restore its twin craft, The Princess Anne.

The former cross-Channel hovercraft is being restored by the museum to create a static exhibit for visitors.

Former trustee at the museum Ben Avery says that the move is necessary to preserve The Princess Anne ‘for years to come’.

He said: ‘The problem is that there weren’t many of these crafts built in the first place.

‘What’s more, there were only two vessels of this size, so our options were limited.

‘We wanted to make sure that we can preserve The Princess Anne for future generations – but we needed enough parts to do that.

‘There are certain parts that are completely unique to these machines so the spare parts are incredibly valuable to us.

‘Some things like propeller blades could be built from scratch but that would also be far too expensive.’

According to the museum, the work to complete the restoration of The Princess Anne is still running on schedule.

Mr Avery said: ‘These two vessels haven’t seen the water for years and were deteriorating fast when we took them on. So far we have invested around £10,000 in the project and although we need to double that figure to complete the project, everything has been completed on schedule so far.

‘This stage of the project should be finished by 2019.

‘We’re fundraising as much as we can and are always looking for more volunteers too.’