Seagull 90 help!

[Gwylan]

Hi all, very new to the forum, having just signed up yesterday!

We've recently acquired a small 13ft boat from Conwy Harbour, although it's our 7th boat (don't ask!) It's our first foray into salty stuff as our plan is to use the boat around the North Wales coast, Conwy, Llandudno etc.

My wife has had what I beleive to be a fairly rare Seagull 90 going off the serial number (WSPCL714CC0) in storage for a good few years (we've been together 15 years, and she had it then). It belonged to her Father who was in the Merchant Navy and he acquired it through a contact, beleived to be ex RNLI.

I've practically no wxperience with petrol outboards, all our other boats are inboard diesels, so its a bit of a learning curve.
Unfortunately the bracket has been misplaced so I cant hang it anywhere, so investigating with the floor as my work space.
It turns freely in and out of gear and there is definitely compression, however when it is in neutral, the propeller seems to be pushed forward, exposing the shaft behind it. When it is in forward gear, the propeller is pulled back towards the gearbox and closes up the gap, however there is a little play and if you wiggle it, it does create a small gap of a millimetre or 2. Im not sure if this model has reverse too, or whether the gear control is just a bit stiff, I don't want to go forcing a thing - recipe for disaster!

If you turn the engine by the flywheel in gear, the propeller turns fine, but if you turn the propeller by hand it looks as though its loosening before jumping back closer to the gearbox again.

Its in a rather scruffy and dirty state at the moment but before getting too deeply involved in, and purchasing a new bracket, I want to makes sure we have something solid to work with.

Ive uploaded a short video to Youtube to show what I'm trying to say.

https://youtube.com/shorts/yygJSgI_ebI? ... DF_AAAPtOr

Any feedback most gratefully received!

Thanks,
Liam

[andrew]

Clutch operation sounds normal. Forward and neutral only. The clutch works by shifting the prop shaft in and out to engage the pinion gear. Hence the gap you see when clutch is engaged.

Is the play on the shaft in/out? That’s normal to a certain degree due to the simple gearbox/clutch design.