Seagull outboard engines, "Getting afloat" and 2 M

[Mike Shipman]

Ive been watching reruns of the "Getting afloat" series on Discovery where Nick Gates, ashipwright in Chichester is restoring a wooden Sharpie boat. There was an item about old Seagull outboards on the one Ive just watched - sounded like the marine equivalent of the A Series - and the programme featured a chap who refurbishes / deals in these old engines and his work transport...?, a rather nice MM Van which can be seen here:
http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/ma ... _minor.htm
Incidentally Nick Gates also has a MM pick up with a wooden boat back - I think its appeared in Minor Monthly or Minor Matters before, very nice too...

[Dru]

I've had a couple of Seagulls; the last one came out of a skip, and was in perfect working order except for a fractured banjo on the fuel line. I found that, stuck on the back of an 8 ft tender, a long shaft Seagull could be extremely zippy (well, it certainly felt zippy from where I was sitting...); it was also fine while going in a straight line, but the moment the tiller was swung the boat tried to flick-roll. Whoooo

[eastona]

I've got an old seagull, it's great, very rugged ("simple, rugged, reliable" used to be their advertising slogan. It's all of those things, if a little noisy and smelly!

Bought some stuff from that website too, very useful.

Andrew

[simmitc]

In the Owners Manual for the Seagull it refers to starting in cold weather - "warm the spark plug in an oven". That's fine when coming ashore from the mooring, but a little difficult if the tender is on the beach on the way out. Besides I get enough grief about Minor parts in doors, a spark plug in the oven wouldn't go down well at all.

Anyway, Seagulls will go on for ever, but not environmentaslly friendly with a typically 20:1 two-stroke mix and a gearbox where the oil is designed to emulsify with seawater.

[eastona]

Yes, the spark plug in oven trick works well.

The gearbox oil (EP140) boy does it smell.

You can use less oil in the mixture with a different carb needle set up.

Andrew

[simmitc]

Yes, the modified needle makes all the difference at 25:1

[overider]

silly question but has anyone got a photo of one of the said seagull.

[Matt]

see here ;)

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en ... a=N&tab=wi

[overider]

I can’t stop laughing I thought it was some kind of old car I hadn’t heard of Sorry!!! and thanks for the link Matt thats made my night now im still laughing to myself