Last year I purchased a wooden sailboat that was made in England by Frank Halls and Sons. "Sara" has sailed around England, France and across the ocean. I've done a bit of renovating over the winter and spring and have started to sail her this season. She came with a tender/dingy that fits on her deck. Rowing out to her in the dingy is a bit of a struggle.While looking through the website craigslist.org I found an old Seagull for sale. I contacted the owner, went to see it, and purchased the motor. It has all its parts but looked awful. The person selling it bought it from someone and never had started it, so he didn't know how many years it had been since it ran. Someone had painted the whole engine a tan color which was all flaking off. The owner wanted $200 I offered $120 and the deal was made. When I brought it home my wife couldn't believe what I did. She thought I got "ripped off". "It will never run," she said. I told her these are great engines and it will run. My son (he's a good mechanic) and I bought a new spark plug, cleaned the fuel tank and carburetor with a product called Sea Foam, an engine cleaner/fuel additive. We gapped the spark plug, mixed up a fresh batch of fuel and 12 pulls later that baby was running like a champ. This morning before going to work I needed to start it, (men are just big boys) and 3 pulls later it started and ran great. So now I'll clean up its appearance and I think I'll have a pretty good looking and a nice running engine for my dingy. It makes a great addition to my British made sailboat and dingy. By the way, this website is VERY COOL!!
Dan
my amazing seagull
Moderators: John@sos, charlesp, Charles uk, RickUK, Petergalileo
Re: my amazing seagull
hi there,nice to have you on here, i only joined the forum about 6mths ago when i bought my first seagull!!!!
there are lots of people out there who are very willing to help if ever you need it,, then again you just bought a fairly good one by the sounds of it.
happy seagulling!!!!
there are lots of people out there who are very willing to help if ever you need it,, then again you just bought a fairly good one by the sounds of it.
happy seagulling!!!!
Re: my amazing seagull
Thanks for the welcome!
She's running like a champ the only thing that concerns me is that not enough water is coming out of the engine block. Water does come out in a fairly good stream but I have watched some videos on You Tube where water comes out as if from a faucet. Perhaps it's like this because it is only been run in a trash can and the water is churning up too much? I seem to have read this may happen and once the engine is on a boat and in open water it should flow better. The only thing that is broken is the plastic piece that screws onto the air intake. I'll have to try and find a replacement. For now I'll just secure it on with electric tape. I even have the original pull cord with British Seagull on the little handle! I have clean her up, stripped off the olive drab colored paint someone painted on and in doing so the factory paint on the gas tank came off too. So it's a brass tank now, which looks great but the raised instructions and British Seagull logo that were part of the paint are gone too. This little Seagull is looking great and this Saturday it's off to the marina to put it on my dingy and try her out. I probably won't even go sailing and just play around in the dingy.
She's running like a champ the only thing that concerns me is that not enough water is coming out of the engine block. Water does come out in a fairly good stream but I have watched some videos on You Tube where water comes out as if from a faucet. Perhaps it's like this because it is only been run in a trash can and the water is churning up too much? I seem to have read this may happen and once the engine is on a boat and in open water it should flow better. The only thing that is broken is the plastic piece that screws onto the air intake. I'll have to try and find a replacement. For now I'll just secure it on with electric tape. I even have the original pull cord with British Seagull on the little handle! I have clean her up, stripped off the olive drab colored paint someone painted on and in doing so the factory paint on the gas tank came off too. So it's a brass tank now, which looks great but the raised instructions and British Seagull logo that were part of the paint are gone too. This little Seagull is looking great and this Saturday it's off to the marina to put it on my dingy and try her out. I probably won't even go sailing and just play around in the dingy.
Re: my amazing seagull
Welcome, If you have a water flow from the head and its not steaming hot, then all should be well.
A build up of rust in the waterways will restrict water flow, a dig around with some suitable wire and a blast with a hosepipe up the outlet hole may improve the flow.
Without taking anything apart, its the first to try, also running in a tank(trash can) with the prop on may reduce water flow, but stops you over revving the motor.
Hope you have fun with it.
A build up of rust in the waterways will restrict water flow, a dig around with some suitable wire and a blast with a hosepipe up the outlet hole may improve the flow.
Without taking anything apart, its the first to try, also running in a tank(trash can) with the prop on may reduce water flow, but stops you over revving the motor.
Hope you have fun with it.
Re: my amazing seagull
Thanks for the information and advice. The water is just warm coming out of the engine block. I did try shooting water up the hole in the engine block as suggested on this website. That did seem to help.
Re: my amazing seagull
Welcome to Seagull ownership and to this forum. You'll learn more than one might imagine possible, if you poke around enough. Pick any subject or engine part and do a search here, just to pass the time and many questions will be answered.
Your engine's paint job sounds interesting.... The tank can be primed with self-etching paint from Auto Zone and then followed behind with high-temperature engine block paint. It's resistant to gasoline, etc. As with all painting, the success is in the prepwork.
This website sells the tank decal in the spare parts section.
Your engine's paint job sounds interesting.... The tank can be primed with self-etching paint from Auto Zone and then followed behind with high-temperature engine block paint. It's resistant to gasoline, etc. As with all painting, the success is in the prepwork.
This website sells the tank decal in the spare parts section.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
- Prof. Peter Drucker
- Prof. Peter Drucker
Re: my amazing seagull
Well I didn't get my Seagull going that particular weekend I spoke of. First off I did fix the problem of not enough water circulating through the engine block. I found that the nut on the end of the copper tube which brings the water up to the engine had at some point vibrated loose and fallen down. A simple fix. Then upon close examination of the spring which drives the prop, I found the end was broken off and the prop was not spinning. Never knew this as I always ran it in a tank of water and the water was really churning up. Also the guy I bought the engine from said it was normal for the prop to spin freely, as it engages when the motor is running. I felt kind of stupid that I didn't realize the spring was broken. I looked online for a spring but decided to manufacture one. I had some stainless steel rod the same diameter as the spring. It was pretty easy to make and seems to be working great. I made two just in case the first one breaks. Well at the marina my Seagull really catches people's eye. I always get 3 or 4 people that ask about the engine. And we look good when we leave the dock in our dingy - one or two pulls and that little engine is running. The week of rain we've had in New England should be stopping by this weekend and we'll go sailing. Hooray!