Saving Old Seagulls

Hi, I'm Francesco from Italy.

I mounted a 1992 Kingfisher on my 20feet sloop two years ago with great satisfaction.

I'm trying to install an Alternator on my Seagull. It was offered as an extra by British Seagull but its production has been discontinued early. The result of it is the fact that they are very rare today.

Its mounting kit it's composed by the Alternator itself and a special carrier tho attach it to the engine body.

John Williams can provide the alternator but there is no way of finding a carrier. They are only provided by british seagull as un-machined casting.

I can solve my problem by this ways:

1- find an new old stock/used Alternator Carrier
2- find an used Kingfisher with Alternator (and Carrier) already installed on it
3- find someone who knows how to work on Carrier casting.

About this last possibility there is a further problem: There seems not to be technical drawings of the Carrier, even at British seagull they cannot provide them anymore.


Can sameone help?

Is there anyone who knows How to work on casting or just the exact dimensions of the finished Carrier?


Thank you for your help
Francesco

Further to my chat about the difficulties of fitting an alternator to the Kingfisher, because of the complex machining needed......

I was down at my boat over the weekend sitting under grey skies, watching the voltage slowly go up in my boat batteries as the faint glimses of the sun made my new solar cell work... Without any petrol smoke or noise! All clever stuff. There are other ways of doing the job, apart from the alternator!

Regards,
John
SOS

Hello John.

How large is the solar cell required to charge the batteries? I've been considering going that route myself in order to have power when on extended trips of more than a couple of days.

Incidently, I'm the same Colin that spoke with you on the phone a few weeks ago - among other things we chatted about that Soviet Freighter that was boarded by the Thames River Police, stationed in Erith, in the 50's.

Excellent site!

Cheers Colin.

Hello Colin,
short reply as I am supposed to be flat on back at moment...... Back op seems to have been a sucess, do not want to muck it up!

I have 300 amp hours of battery and a 32watt panel produces about 2.5 amps tops. If you have a 100 amp hour heavy battery 10 watt would do the job. 50 amp hour, small car battery 5 watt. Less than those wattagges would still charge battery but maybe not to max.

Cheers,
John
SOS

Thanks for the information John; better stay on your back as you'll not want to go through it all again.