Saving Old Seagulls

Evening Gents,

I may have the opportunity to acquire a as new 2.3m inflatable, would my Silver Century be suitable or is she too big?

Rob

It will be good as gold! I put a 7hp short leg merc on one, went like a scolded cat.... just wasn't that good when it was stopped!!! it sat in the water like this ./

I will have to make sure I have someone up front - I don't think she will sit quite like yours.

Many thanks

I am assuming the 2.3 meters is overall length in which case I am of the opinion that a silver century is too big. The perfect motor would be an FV of mini 40.

My inflatable is 3.5 and that is a match for a century .

Photo shows it with a century under power with backup LS. achieves about 4 knots +_ same speed for both engines.

AJ.... PS sorry photos won't post now I think you can still see a couple of them under Racing and Events: Bruny Island classic I

I had a cracking Forty Plus last year but had to sell it to pay some bills

I will try inflatable (2.3m is overall length) with Century and see how it goes but will keep an eye out for another 40.

I appreciate I'm late to the party, but I have some experience with Seagulls and an inflatable boat. Mine is a 3.1 meter boat. I've used it quite a bit with my 90 motor on it. It pushes it along well enough, but no Seagull is going to get you on the plane, so you are pretty much doing hull speed, plus whatever more you can force out it. I've never run my 40+'s on it, mainly because the recoil start and FNR of the 90 are so convenient, but would imagine there would be little difference in cruising performance. Crusing performance is basically the hull speed. plus how ever much unnecessary noise you can tolerate as you force the hull through the water. One thing I did like with the 90 was that despite the fact that running at full throttle or close to it gave very little extra speed, it did give the boat some "authority" in the water, we got caught in a wind storm one day and cranking up the rpm kept it planted in the water and heading in the right direction despite winds so strong the tops of the waves were being blown into the boat.

More recently I acquired a 9.9 Evinrude motor, once I had that propped correctly it would get the boat on the plane with two people and run about 15 mph. In the middle I had a 7.5 hp, but couldn't get on the plane so performance was not much improved over the 90. I should state this is on a large reservoir at about 6,000 ft of altitude, so power loss is an issue. My boat is rated for 15hp so there's no worry of any Seagull being too much for the boat, power or weight wise. The combo of the 90 and inflatable for me came about pretty much because that's what I had, but for just putting around it was great, so I wouldn't worry about using whatever you have. The other bonus with my 90, was how long a gallon of fuel will last, something I reminisced about this year on the same patch of water in my 24' Rinker cabin cruiser with a 5.7 V8, on a longer stay with the inflatable and Seagull 90 I didn't use 5 gallons the whole 2 week trip, needless to say at 26 gph at full throttle, the same 5 gallons didn't last very long, cruising wit the idling along looking at the scenery etc. I could get away about 3 gph, I think the Seagull was 3 gallons per week!!!

I have a video somewhere of the inflatable running with the Seagull 90 that I could show you if that would give a better idea than my rambling description.

robhc1000 wrote:Evening Gents,

I may have the opportunity to acquire a as new 2.3m inflatable, would my Silver Century be suitable or is she too big?

Rob

You don't say if the dinghy is a "roundtail" or a rigid transom dinghy.

Too big and too heavy for a rounttail.. A Featherweight would be ideal.

Fine for a rigid transom.

I have recently purchased a Forty Featherweight from a fellow forum member (thanks Jon) for the inflatable - it has a rigid transom. I have yet to try it out yet as not had a suitable day.

I will post pictures on here when finally in the water.

I think a 40 will work great, you'll hit your hull speed easily enough. One thing to take care of is not getting an oily mess all over your boat, the marks don't like to come off too easily, if at all in some cases. I used the Amsoil synthetic oil in mine that helped no end as it almost immediately emulsifies with the water. Also find a piece of plastic tube or something to make a tiller extension, I guarantee you will want to sit forward quite a bit

Don't worry about the weather, I've been out in mine in a 30 mph wind, rain and 2 foot waves,( not on purpose), but you shouldn't let a little "Scotch Mist" spoil your fun

Here's a short clip of my forty plus running a 2.3 inflatable ! It works fine and sounds good .I hope this helps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDuRumy4rKg

fortyplus wrote:I think a 40 will work great, you'll hit your hull speed easily enough. One thing to take care of is not getting an oily mess all over your boat, the marks don't like to come off too easily, if at all in some cases. I used the Amsoil synthetic oil in mine that helped no end as it almost immediately emulsifies with the water. Also find a piece of plastic tube or something to make a tiller extension, I guarantee you will want to sit forward quite a bit

Don't worry about the weather, I've been out in mine in a 30 mph wind, rain and 2 foot waves,( not on purpose), but you shouldn't let a little "Scotch Mist" spoil your fun

Great tip, thank you

jerseydave69 wrote:Here's a short clip of my forty plus running a 2.3 inflatable ! It works fine and sounds good .I hope this helps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDuRumy4rKg

Great video, yours goes really well

The video illustrates my earlier point about your speed above the hull speed being pretty much dictated by how much noise you can stand - throttle back and enjoy the ride - although as I mentioned it's nice to have that extra thrust to plant it in the water, if you hit some weather and strong winds.

an LS and a century on a 3mt

Adrian Dale wrote:an LS and a century on a 3mt

Daft question..........with having both outboards on your transom and the engine not being central does the boat try and turn itself round in circles if you let it or doesn't it make that much difference?