Saving Old Seagulls

Hi to everyone on the forum, my name is Linden and I live on the outskirts of Exeter in East Devon. I own a rather old Mirror Dinghy and have today acquired a 1978 Seagull from another forum member up in Droitwich (thanks Nick).

I'm mighty pleased with my purchase and have to agree with Nick that I did get rather a bargain, esp with the spares that came with the engine.

Now to my query. Has anyone devised an efficient and reliable method of killing the engine in case of an emergency?? It may seem a little paranoid to some to ask such a question, but with a tragic event happening only last year down here in the SW and my clubs strict adherance to RYA advice to always wear a kill switch strap when operating powered vessels, I wondered if anybody had come up with anything??

I was toying around with finding a method of earthing out the low tension side of the circuit, but have also thought about putting some sort of removable section in the plug lead??

I'm an amputee, and my wife has had a stoke, we enjoy our sailing as much as we can within our capabilities, but l would still like to have this safety/redundancy in the system if nothing more than for peace of mind - yes perhaps I am being a bit over the top, however I have also witnessed what an outboard prop can do to a mans leg even when it was only on tick over! Suffice to say my collegue survived but was very luck not to loose his leg!! I've already lost half of one and don't want to 'loose' any more lol

If anybody has any constructive thoughts or ideas on the matter I would be only to pleased to share them.

Best regards.

Lin.

hello and welcome to the flock LIN

bit trick this one?
this all depends on what motor you have and the type of ignition system the motor has.
later model seagulls from 1979 onwards had a more modern electronic ignition which on some of the larger engines incorporated a "kill switch" or push button to stop the engine.
with a magneto type ignition (which i think your motor probably has) you could employ some sort of "on/off" switch wired through the points.

also you could look at some sort of a lanyard attached to the ht lead, give it a yank to pull off the ht lead from the plug and that will also "kill" the engine.

however, if your motor is adjusted correctly, you should be able to just shut off the throttle and that will do exactly the same.
very simple engine the seagull.
get hold of a workshop manual through JON at sos (he hosts this site) and that will tell you everything you need to know.

how about some pics of your seagull?
we like pics

jon

Welcome Lin, good to see you are enjoying your boating! You could wire in a switch in line to the points cable, but the throttle cable should be adjusted so the engine shuts off when the throttle is closed. how about easing the throttle lever screw and fitting a stronger spring, so the throttle will always shut off on its own?

Hi Linden.

I brought up this topic recently here. This is a link to the topic,

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4687

I have attempted a couple of failed attempts at making a flap to block the air intake as a means of killing the engine and come to the conclusion that I would be better off earthing the engine as some of the contributors recommended. I'm planning on buying one of these and giving it a go. Well perhaps not this exact one, I'm still looking at them to pick the type most suited for a seagull.

Good Luck with it,

Cheers Pat

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ignition-Lany ... 5d4d569b74