Seaspeed was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of British Railways to operate high-speed non-conventional marine craft, concentrating initially on the SRN4 hovercraft. As a first preliminary it was decided to establish an SRN6 route across the Solent to gain operating experience. Since those early days, with two SRN6s, two HM2s and two SRNs the company has ferried 1 026 595 fare-paying passengers a total approaching ten million passenger miles.

The Solent was chosen for a number of reasons. It was the birthplace of the hovercraft and manufacturers were all readily at hand. The weather conditions in relation to the size of the N6 were judged to be representative of the weather conditions facing the N4 on the Channel. Further, as we saw that successful hovercraft would have to operate in crowded terminal conditions, operating in and out of Cowes would give us valuable experience that we could transfer to N4 operating. Our first N6 route was, therefore, selected as Southampton/Cowes.