Saving Old Seagulls

About three years ago, on a wretched foggy day, I saw some signs for an open day by a local charity for the local civic goverment's Cold War bomb shelter at Soar Point, near Malborough, near Salcombe, South Devon.

An interesting visit, follow my logical thought process,

You are one of the chosen ones in the civic government........check,
You receive the three minute warning of the imminent arrival of many buckets of instant sunshine.........check,
Leave all your family members to be burnt to ashes............check,
You drive from Exeter, 35 plus miles, or Plymouth 15 miles over roads that were last improved after the war.........(the First one!)......arrive within the 3 minute window.
Chat to all the local farmers who have doorstepped you with 12 gauge shotguns as you are trying to close the (very thick) door to your shelter.
Ponder why your nuclear bomb shelter is 20 foot above ground, on the very top of a 500 foot hill............check.
Vaporise................check.

Anyway..............
Back to the present day, three years ago, there was a fantastic collection of outboard motors, in one of the downstairs rooms.
some from the 1900's, but the most crazy was a ROMANI, a supercharged, flat six, contra rotating propped thing, that had a Seagull-esque knotted rope flywheel. Madness. http://www.soriano-outboard.com/14825.html

Does anybody know if they are still there, and what is the history of the collection, it looked to be someones labour of love.

As far as I'm aware the motors came from the Basildon museum collection in Essex.
Viewing on appointment only, as I understand it is now.
That's the thing, if you wish to have your motor in a museum, you have to sign over the ownership of the motor to the museum, I suppose that's why we don't have any outboard museums and why they are hidden away in collectors sheds.

Wow, they are cool outboards.

Very nice. I didn't know there were outboards so big

Oops, wrong video of starting that beast, here it is. https://vimeo.com/39031991
I like the thick leather glove, that thing probably bites hard.
My little seagull can only dream.

Actually the Soriano in the bunker was only a 4 cylinder one & seized, but had both props on the pushme pullyou lower unit, I surveyed some of those motors several years ago.

Any photos of the collection Charles?

Sorry not for publication no.

You visited a museum and wont show a photo or two?

http://www.mby.com/news/historic-outboa ... -home-6252

http://www.pbase.com/crustacean/the_bunker&page=2

Some interesting pieces there, and of course the bunker looks fascinating. Even a Coventry Victor there, not to mention at least two Marstons.

It wasn't a museum, it was a storage unit, a couple of owners got me access so I could survey some outboards I was interested in.

If I came to your house to look at the outboards in your garage, & then posted pictures of the total contents all over the internet, without asking your consent first, how pleased would you be?

Come on be honest Charles, it's just you haven't worked out how to post up a picture yet.
Anyway, other than two or three engines, most look pretty rough, as they were found, by the looks, even the CV has been played with and doesn't look right and that's just the view from the back.
Nothing much to get worked up about here.

Bump! Just to make sure that no one misses the outboard porn.................

I haven't a clue who this chap is, but he has some interesting outboards

These are of a flat six, water cooled, supercharged Soriano possibly 1940's vintage, before it became a Romani.
The leather glove looks to be a wise precaution!

https://vimeo.com/39031991
https://vimeo.com/81863423
https://vimeo.com/81861985
https://vimeo.com/39031549

Built by Spaniards in the 1930's,
then by the French,
finally by some Italians in the 1950's

This one I havnae a scoobie, but it is an interesting spinny flywheel thing.
https://vimeo.com/40381553

Enjoy.

Just been up on Soar today, and asked about the shelter. Unfortunately the Hope Cove shelter was sold several years ago. Seems that developers are trying their luck, as I think it is outwith the National Trusts ownership.

Does anybody know what happened to the outboard collection?

Those outboards were moved there by various friends of the motor boat museum at Basildon, which the council withdrew funding for a few years ago. Wonder what happened to them. It's a shame if they have been split up.