inheriting an old lls

[chris]

My old sailing mate Larry Loveday passed away recently at the age of 86, he had his last sail 2 weeks before he was taken ill.
Larry sailed in his much beloved decrepid old mirror 16.The motor which he used he bought new was a seagull LLS 18418.
I read with interest all the views on seagull maintenance and oils etc and am reminded that the main maintenance Larry's motor got was a hell of a lot of use.
He never flushed it because it never sat for more than a month between runs, we decided to take the head off a couple of years ago just out of curiosity,it was only slightly blocked but not rusty. He used to run the oil on the fuel mix with whatever oil he had spare but he always ran fresh fuel. The gearbox finally needed rebuilding because he had only ever changed the oil once and he couldn't remember when, he topped it up everytime he used it, the motor was cleaned down after some of the runs.
If the hours this motor was run was measured it would be, well I would say one hell of a lot. It is still running but I am going to run it now on special runs, the ones he enjoyed the most, which was every time he was on the water.
His seagull proved that they are a hard working but not infallible motor.It had its break downs like they all do.
Larry like me believed in using them and never worried about their appearance. His mirror 16 is being donated to a member of the wooden boat assocation

[Adrian Dale]

great post Chris, thanks for sharing. I am sitting overlooking Great Taylors Bay with a glass of red on beautiful calm evening and can almost see him puttering across the glassy waters of the bay....
AJ

[Niander101]

"His seagull proved that they are a hard working but not infallible motor.It had its break downs like they all do".
It served him well!
IT did amazingly well as from what you say he didn't look after it 100%!

[chris]

they sure do thrive on a lot of use and abuse, the trouble is they are getting old, my newest one is a 1977 silver century and the oldest was an 1948 AC, I only use the newer motors the main one being the 40+, the one with the bing carb as they are my main motors and I still do long trips 6 hours plus and don't carry a back up.

[headdownarseup]

I still have thoughts of paying tribute to my freind's mother who recently passed away.
She was the sort of person who could almost be anybodys mother, she didn't discriminate or judge anyone, just a really lovely old lady.
Now my buddy (who probably doesn't know anything about this yet) is also into boating (of a fashion) and i've wondered about building a small dinghy and restoring an old seagull (FV, or LS or similar) by way of a thankyou.

Seagulls should be kept in use, that's what they were designed for, albeit sparingly nowadays as they are getting on a bit now and probably well past their use by date.
Definitely good to get one out and stretch its wings a bit.

Hopeless seagull fanatic

jon

[Adrian Dale]

A beautiful gesture Jon

[headdownarseup]

I'm just that sort of bloke.

OLD SOFTY!

jon