Saving Old Seagulls

This is the Work Tender, it lives permanently on the rocky beach and gets pulled up and down over the kelp. Usually I just row around the moorings but today I decided to give the Featherweight an outing.
At a quarter throttle it goes along faster than I can row!
Streamed behind wile I get some work done.
Faint cloud of smoke following on the return.
Back on the beach.
Although some days it can be a hard pull rowing against the tide and wind I don’t think I’ll be using the outboards regularly as it’s just as hard carrying them up and down the cliff and carrying them across the kelp.
But having said that I’ll give the Forty Plus a go next time out.

Dave.

Is that a Walker bay 10 ? Really safe dinghy with very good carrying capacity .

Yes it’s a Walker Bay 10, it’s extremely rugged and has stood a beating on the rocks for about 15 years.
It is rather crank so I don’t regard it as a particularly safe dinghy but it is a good work horse.

Dave.

They were built as a sailing dinghy , I never had the kit for mine . I just used it for a tender for my creel boat . It is plated to carry 250 kg ! I could get 10 baskets of crab in it

That’s great, do you use a Seagull on yours? Is it difficult to fit all the baskets in? With this one I’ve extended the forward thwart aft and fitted another set of sockets for the crutches so I can row from forward.
Yes they have very high initial stability but like a flat bottom boat that righting moment quickly becomes a capsize moment in a seaway. I have seen them fitted with a factory made inflatable collar which must help.

Dave.

Ten baskets was ok with outboard but there wasn't enough room to row . I used an old 2 horse yam . I see them with the inflatable collars indeed which makes me think perhaps they need it for sailing . I downsized to a smaller boat so also a smaller tender . After ten years of sterling service I sold the walker bay . Unfortunately while I was moving it for the new owner it fell through the kitchen window ! Fairly took the shine off the sale price ! If you search through my posts there is one with '40 minus ' which shows the wee tender I have now

Bet you didn’t damage the Walker Bay when you put it through the window! Would have been some interesting fisherman language used!
Ha yes just looked up that post to see what you have now, a nice setup, see I commented on it last year when I first joined the forum.
Most of the local Shellfish ends up in Europe where does yours go?

Dave.

Same here , all goes to Spain and Portugal on a vivier truck but alot of brown crab goes to China . Apologies to forum users , we've strayed from the original subject a bit

Well at least you can say you are using your Seagull to export fish to Europe!

Dave.

So last week I used the Featherweight and this week the Forty Plus.
Conditions where different so it is hard to compare the two as the Featherweight could drive the dingy at hull speed, just the Forty Plus reached hull speed at lower revs. It was further to go up river this week to another set of moorings, this photo was taken on the way up running with the wind and tide. Making good progress with a quarter throttle.

Coming back against the wind and tide at first I used half to three quarter throttle and made good headway but eventually had to slow down to a quarter throttle because of the fetch causing waves which had the prop cavitating.and me getting wet from the spray.
Back in shelter water I tried her with full throttle but apart from vibrating the whole boat it made no difference to the speed but sure was noisy!!
Used about three quarters of the tank which was more than I expected.

Dave.

Do you need to adjust the trim a bit or is it just the way it looks in the picture ?

Well spotted, because the 40 clamp is quite shallow the two clamp washers come up under a ridge that is designed to stop them coming up and off. But it also tips the clamp away from the transoms. If I was to use the outboards regally I would alter the top of the transom with a chisel to allow the clamps to sit deeper, however this is probably the last outing for them on this dinghy.

Dave.

Don’t have a Homer Drool (Dremel Tool?) Bruce more at home with a 10" grinder! The plastic that the boat is made of cuts very cleanly and you can leave what looks like a polished finish with a plane or a chisel.

Dave.