[bolger] British Seagull motor for Micro
The small outboard motors
BO>I've seen in the past seemed to send a ridiculously small stream of
BO>water astern, ridiculously fast, with much wasted energy. I think this
BO>big prop was the idea with the old British Seagull, though apparently
BO>it had other troubles. Somewhere on the web there are some hilarious
BO>accounts of this particular engine (I think), possibly on the Light
BO>Schooner site.
In fairness--we're still using it. We've reached at truce. We run at
full throttle and it coughs at half throttle. Saturday it performed
faultlessly for the 5 n mi its tank lasts. Refilled in mid chanell. As
I restrated, one of the crew said, before being beaten into silence by
the rest "Gee, the Seagull's been faultless". We then spluttered,
coughed and choked through the next 2 miles.
There are no troubles with a Seagull once you accept that old engines
are old engines and will have peculiarities and personal foibles. If
you can get a near-new classic seagull, that'll be worth its weight in
gold, or at least stainless steel, because it will last you the next 30
years. The big slow-turning shallow pitch prop is ideal for
displacement hulls. The modern classics also have fripperies like a
cover to stop the flywheel amputating your hand or doing an Isadora
Duncan on you, reverse gear and alternators. A Seagull will not look
out of place sitting on a Micro transom.
Tim & FT2
BO>I've seen in the past seemed to send a ridiculously small stream of
BO>water astern, ridiculously fast, with much wasted energy. I think this
BO>big prop was the idea with the old British Seagull, though apparently
BO>it had other troubles. Somewhere on the web there are some hilarious
BO>accounts of this particular engine (I think), possibly on the Light
BO>Schooner site.
In fairness--we're still using it. We've reached at truce. We run at
full throttle and it coughs at half throttle. Saturday it performed
faultlessly for the 5 n mi its tank lasts. Refilled in mid chanell. As
I restrated, one of the crew said, before being beaten into silence by
the rest "Gee, the Seagull's been faultless". We then spluttered,
coughed and choked through the next 2 miles.
There are no troubles with a Seagull once you accept that old engines
are old engines and will have peculiarities and personal foibles. If
you can get a near-new classic seagull, that'll be worth its weight in
gold, or at least stainless steel, because it will last you the next 30
years. The big slow-turning shallow pitch prop is ideal for
displacement hulls. The modern classics also have fripperies like a
cover to stop the flywheel amputating your hand or doing an Isadora
Duncan on you, reverse gear and alternators. A Seagull will not look
out of place sitting on a Micro transom.
Tim & FT2
> full throttle and it coughs at half throttle.Tim,
>We then spluttered, coughed and choked through the next 2 miles.
You may already have made this modification.....it made a HUGE
difference in how our trusty ole Seagull runs
On our 20 year old model, the original gas/oil mixture was something
like 10:1 (yes, ten-to-one) and the little beastie smoked like a
freight train (coal fired vintage). While it started...OK, sometimes
it took 3-4 pulls. Part throttle operation tended to "load up" the
spark plug with resultant rough running.
The Seagull folks must have figured this out because they offer a
retrofit taper needle/spring kit($10 a few years ago) for the carb
which changes the gas/oil mixture to 25:1. This is not the 50:1 of
modern two-strokers, but it's an enormous improvement for the Seagull.
Our's now starts 90% of the time on one pull and runs at part throttle
without fouling.
Regards,
John