Saving Old Seagulls

The Verity made by AV SALE of of 3 Mill Lane, Hurlstone Park, NSW, is one of Australia's earliest outboards, and is without doubt Australia's very first opposed twin.

Although I already have a Verity in my collection, it is the more recent model with the pressed copper tank. The one pictured below is earlier, and manufactured between 1947 and 1950. It has some interesting features. The tiller moves only the lower unit whilst the powerhead remains in a fixed position. The tank is constructed from 2 half sections (an upper and a lower) and can be separated for internal cleaning.
Being approx. 70 years old it does have its issues. The waterpump housing that sits directly above the cav plate has had a major repair done to it at some stage, leaving it badly deformed and cracked around the screw fixings. Unfortunately it will need to be replaced. The gearbox has been punctured on both sides and the rope sheave has a crack running through the middle of it. Both are however repairable.

The good news is that it's a running outboard.

A very cool piece of Australian Outboard Manufacturing history, as I'm sure you will agree.

More in due course.

Regards,
Spiro

That's a great old outboard to own. Nice

How do they seal the tank halves? I love the sound of the horizontally opposed motors. Does it sound like a fisherman? Come to think of it it would be good to do a sound recording of all the different gulls. Cant say l'm too enamored about the high pitched 40 but the early 102 echoing across the water is distinctive.

is that a leaver to change the timing?
very interesting motor!

Kind of similar to the 5HP Ecylpse that I used to own, although it was air cooled and from an earlier era, and with much better casting.

Hugz wrote:How do they seal the tank halves?

Hi Hugz, not sure I want to separate the two halves just yet to find out.

Hugz wrote:I love the sound of the horizontally opposed motors. Does it sound like a fisherman?

I expect it would sound like the Fisherman, particularly as the engine is near enough to identical.

Regards,
Spiro

Nudge wrote:is that a leaver to change the timing?
very interesting motor!

Yes it is mate.

Regards,
Spiro

Rob Ripley wrote:Kind of similar to the 5HP Ecylpse that I used to own, although it was air cooled and from an earlier era, and with much better casting.

The Bendix Eclipse is a work of art in my opinion. Easily the best castings I've seen on an outboard of that age, but somewhat fragile at the same time. Most impressive is the starting and lubrication instructions case in small print on the inner cowl. I own what I believe to be a '37 model. Bad restoration by the previous owner, and some corrosion from salt water use that will need to be attended to when I get around to restoring it again.

Regards,
Spiro

Oyster 49 wrote:That's a great old outboard to own. Nice

Thank you Oyster!

On the other hand, look at the quality of the casting of the Indian, seen in a maritime museum in Auckland, New Zealand.