Thread: British Seagull outboards

You won't find many. They're still out there somewhere, trying to start the damn things.
(I fought with one back in the seventies. We eventually threw it overboard and rowed back)

I have a modern outboard and a smoke machine...can I come too

cheers

Email sent.

Mike

Originally Posted by SimonP

You won't find many. They're still out there somewhere, trying to start the damn things.
(I fought with one back in the seventies. We eventually threw it overboard and rowed back)

I've owned several British Seagulls, the last was a Century Plus which ALWAYS started first pull. I hadn't used it for two years, so advertised it on eBay. The buyer wanted to see it running before he parted with the readies. So I was very apprehensive when I primed the carby and pulled the cord, but needn't have worried - started first go.
As long as you had a clean plug, they were ultra reliable.

Yeah, my experience is the same - as long as the plug is good, and the petrol fresh, they will usually start first pull.

I recently bought a 102 Series (post-war) from a bloke in Gympie who hadn't started it for over a year. After we primed the carb with new fuel, cleaned up the plug electrode and freed up the stuck throttle cable with a bit of WD40, she fired up first pull of the rope.

And - big news - we have 'dug out' about 40 blokes from the woodwork (pun intended) who are keen to communicate and occasionally get together to do 'Seagull stuff', and off the back of that we have organised the "Inaugural Australian Seagull Owners Gathering".

It's at Myall Lakes, NSW in January 2012. Invitation attached. Spread the word.

Also we have a new 'universal' email address - [email protected]

Drop us a line and say g'day!
Cheers
Mark

Just an update on the plans of the Oz Seagullers....

We will be attending and displaying various motors, and probably have some on-water activities as well, as part of the RMYC Wooden Boat Festival at Newport, Sydney on 5-6 November 2011.

Anybody wants to come along and say g'day will be more than welcome!

Cheers
Mark

Many years ago my younger brother took it into his haed that he wanted to spend some time on the briney. So He went and bought a Commodores peaked cap resplendent with gold piping and a dinky white jacket to match. The next day he made a 5 hour round trip to pick up a 16ft Hartley trailer sailer...and a book entitled "How to Sail a boat" (or something like that). Anyway the boat was green and came with everything needed to tack, reach whatever else sail boats are supposed to do on the water. It also came with a 5 or 6 hp Seagull auxiliary motor and 4 old style cork filled canvas lifejackets (which fell apart when he picked them up.
Anyway, he decided to start his sailing career on a fairly innocuous lagoon down the road a bit. Muggins me offered to be his sole crew member (like him I'd never set foot on a sailing boat before in my life. He has earlier assured me that there were lifeboats aboard but none of the ones that didn't fall to pieces fit me and in fact the ripped apart during the weffort to put one on.
Anyway, we ditched the lifejackets and set sail. There was brother, sitting at the helm resplendent in his poofy lookin Commodores outfit .... reading the book on how to sail a boat. I had assumed he already knew.
Anyway, the wind picked up before he was ready to sail the boat (he hadn't reached that part of thge book as yet. I started panicking (I can't swim a metre)...he started panicking. The boom got flung from starboard to port (or port to starboard..whatever) and whacked the commodore on the back of his head drawing blood and sending his brand new poofy commodores hat into the deep (shallow really) blue. He cried. I abused the crap out of the moron and remembered I didn't have a bloody will. We then noticed that we were actually sailing....the sail was full....we were going pretty quick....dead on to the rocky southern shore of the lagoon. He had not a clue howto turn...so in a moment of glittering brilliance he decided to start the seagull and turn us round.... It refused to start....fuel tank empty. I abuse the crap out of the fool yet again...so in another blinding piece of brilliance he tied a rope to the seagull and threw it overboard as a kellick. It worked. It snagged on the rocky bottom and we stopped dead...we dropped the sail. Cut the seagull loose cos it was stuck fast to whatever it had snagged on and left it on the bottom. We rowed to shore. On the monday, 2 days later, he put the Hartley on his front lawn and sold it never to sail again. He never got his poofy commodore cap back either.
Was that the end of the saga.....noooooo!!
About 3 years later, a family friend was put in hospital. He had serious lacerations to his left foot as a result of a diving accident. Brother and I went to visit him to ask how it happened. Said friend went snorkelling off his punt on the previously mentioned learner sailors lagoon and jumperd off his punt onto the propellor of the old seagull motor my useless brother had tossed overboard years before. It was so bloody hilarious AND unbelievable we had to tell him where the motor came from. Luckily he saw the funny side and I still have a quiet cackle about it.

True story.

Cheers
Mike

Anyone know about about the Johnson Seahorse 4hp?
Thanks
Mike