Kelmscott Congregational Church’s hovercraft finally takes flight

DOWN a quiet Kelmscott street in a church shed, there is a hovercraft waiting to take flight.

For 20 years, the Mentor Men’s Torque program at Kelmscott Congregational Church has been bringing together dads and their kids to work on projects and chat about their lives.

“I believed fathers and sons needed a place to do things,” Pastor Mark Parker said.

The hovercraft project started five years ago from a blueprint, with a number of eager workers jumping on board.

“It gets everybody’s attention,” Pastor Parker said.

The mammoth effort in building the hovercraft, which can be flown on land or water depending on local restrictions and licences, was a team effort.

“Every skill that every man had in the church was used to build it. We went from carpentry to machining, to electrical, painting, fibreglassing, motors, everything was made here. That’s why it took so long.

“A couple of the boys working on it, one of them didn’t know what he wanted to do in life and he ended up becoming a diesel fitter. He went from being a real outcast at school, to having an income and having a job.”

The hovercraft lifts around 20-30cm off the ground, and its flights have included a private airstrip in Mundijong and a turn around Poppanyinning Reserve, where Pastor Parker said cancer-stricken local Shirley McIllwaine went for a spin while husband Russell McIllwaine watched his wife with tears in his eyes.

“He was going ‘that’s my wife, look at that’,” Pastor Parker said.

He said he wanted to thank everyone who had been involved in the project, with at least 40 people lending a hand.

Now that the hovercraft is done and dusted, it is time for something new for the next generation of kids to work on.

“Everybody’s been listening to me for four or five years saying ‘I’ll bring the hovercraft in one day, I’ll show you one day!’ And people in the church have been listening to it for years. And well here it is, and now it’s time to go, because we want to move on to something else,” he said.

The church is looking to sell their hovercraft to raise funds for their upcoming beach buggy project to mentor a new bunch of dads and kids.

If you are looking for a hovercraft to call your own or are interested in the dads and sons program at Kelmscott Congregational Church, call the leader of Mentor Men’s Torque Ricky Ferns on 0414 399 450.

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