Buying a Seagull

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Fire99 said:
Compared to their peers about 50 years ago, Seagulls are great but everything has moved on and IMO you can have all the benefits with a fraction of the hassle with a late model 2-stroke Jap motor.
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Which will cost around five times as much as a good second hand seagull and last, if you're very lucky, ten years.
 
orbister said:
Which will cost around five times as much as a good second hand seagull and last, if you're very lucky, ten years.
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I don't agree. My Mariner 2.5 is a prime example. It's getting towards 9 years old. It starts first pull, has CDI ignition etc, is easy to maintain and looks (other than a few scrapes) virtually new.

I'm not a maintenance maniac but i've cleaned the carb once, check the impellar each year and run it in a fresh water tank at the Sailing Club sometimes.

And you can't compare a 50 year old 2nd hand outboard price with a brand new modern one. Apples and oranges.
 
oldharry said:
"I am now sure that OP is even more confused than when he first asked!
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What have I started here? What a terrific set of responses and so divergent, thanks.

I am still very tempted to get one - as a former 2CV owner I'm not afraid of archeological engineering, though would not call myself a mechanic.

I'm not going to get one just yet though, for some reason I can't quite make up my mind....
 
I wouldn't part with my seagull 40+. On two occasions it got me out of trouble when the main motor packed up. I know I can depend on it. In fact when I look along the mooring trot I notice that most boats have a seagull as an emergency backup.
On my previous boat I had a Yamaha 5hp long shaft in an outboard well. I could never get it to run smoothly and neither could the marine engineers. I replaced it with a Seagull 5hp which started and ran perfectly.
Don't be put off by people saying they're "40 years out of date". This is merely testimony to their rugged design.
 
Funny how 'Seagulls' always tend to get lumped together by their critics.
The BIG Seagulls (Silver Century Plus, WSPC etc) are ideal for pushing a displacement hull along - show me a modern outboard with an 11" 5-bladed slow-revving prop ...

I've often thought that a modern 4-stroke engine on top of a S/Century leg would make a perfect combination - one of my 'round tuit' jobs.
 
If the OP buys anything other than a 2 stroke Mariner 3.3hp.... he's a masochist.

Seagulls may have character.... but the best Outboard ever is the Mariner 3.3 2 stroke.
 
photodog said:
If the OP buys anything other than a 2 stroke Mariner 3.3hp.... he's a masochist.

Seagulls may have character.... but the best Outboard ever is the Mariner 3.3 2 stroke.
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The most reliable engines I've ever had were Seagulls, a 40+ bought new in 196? than an ancient Century I acquired with a boat. Owned the 40+ for many many years, it pushed everything from dinghies to two ton-weight small sailing cruisers. Both engines were first time every time start, and just did not go wrong. But they were horribly noisy and oily. Curiously the Century was quieter.

Now I have two two-stroke 3.3s, one a three year old Mercury and the other a virtually unused Tohatsu, this second one bought last year to have a spare just before they stopped selling two-strokes.
 
Lakesailor said:
Seagull01.jpg
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This photo brings the horror of it all back, and something others have not commented on - that I noticed. I mean the times when it does not start and the string has to be wound around the flywheel again ... and again ... and again.

Long after I threw mine away I think there was a recoil start bolt-on, but all I remember of those awful days was interminably winding that piece of string.

Thank goodness for my 2.5hp Johnson - it is reliable and goes on forever.
 
Fire99 said:
I don't agree. My Mariner 2.5 is a prime example. It's getting towards 9 years old. It starts first pull, has CDI ignition etc, is easy to maintain and looks (other than a few scrapes) virtually new.
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My Yamaha 4 is another prime example. Despite a relatively easy life and annual professional servicing it seized at about 5 years old (binding rubber bush bearing) and finally died after about ten years when the gearbox housing corroded through in two places.

And you can't compare a 50 year old 2nd hand outboard price with a brand new modern one. Apples and oranges.
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Of course you can compare them! They're both in pounds, or if one isn't there are plenty of online currency converters.

If all you want is something to shove a dinghy along from time to time it's perfectly valid to ask "Shall I spend five hundred quid on a new Yamaha 2.5, two hundred quid on a second hand Yamaha 2 or fifty quid on a second hand Seagull?" All these choices have their pros and cons, and I for one don't criticise anyone who priorities are different from mine.
 
Barnac1e said:
This photo brings the horror of it all back, and something others have not commented on - that I noticed. I mean the times when it does not start and the string has to be wound around the flywheel again ... and again ... and again.

What on earth did you do to it to STOP a Seagull starting? Both the ones I had ALWAYS started first pull - open fuel, push down the button to tickle the carb (dripping 10:1 petrol/oil mix into the sea), choke on if cold and off if warm, and about a third throttle. Low compression engines so the pull was easy.
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The main advantage of a seagull is the price and the ease of self maintainance.
I have a flock of 3. A "modern"1990 seagull Curlew with cd ignition which drives my
Hunter 19, a 40 plus with clutch which does very well on my GP14 and a 40 minus for the avon dinghy.
These 3 cost very little to buy off e bay and have been easy to maintain without the need for professional servicing.They all start with ease and do the job they were intended for.Ok they are not as quiet as a modern outboard and use more fuel.
For the H boat I have a Yamaha 5hp 2 stroke for cruising and a Tohatsu 3.5 for racing(its lighter to lift off the back and put into cabin) Both of these engines I have to have professionally serviced as the tolerances are much finer than the seagulls.
If you are buying a Seagull make sure that it is post 1967 as these can be converted to run on 25:1 petrol oil mixture.prior to 1967 the bearings were shorter and have to have 10:1 mixture which does give off quite a wreak
 
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I was given a Seagull Silver Century Plus longshaft with clutch that had fallen in the Thames whilst still running. A friend whilst diving found it on the bottom, so recovered it. He didn't really want it so lobbed it in the corner of the old stable at the back of his lock cottage. Some years later he offered it to me - cables and carb spring rusted through, tank full of foul-smelling gunk, but not seized completely solid, and the spring behind the prop broken.

I stripped it at home, the con-rod was "S" shaped, but intact, as was the piston. I hammered the con rod straight by eye alone using a lump hammer and resting it on the old man's coal bunker corner and stuck the pot back on with Hermatite using the same gasket. I bought a new prop spring, throttle cable and slide spring, washed out the tank and re-filled it with 10:1, wire brushed the plug and clamped it to the coal bunker. It started after 3 or 4 pulls and ran noisily but properly. I stowed it in a locker on my mobo and forgot about it.

That clunker brought my boat home from the middle of the Solent when my expensive inboard/outdrive failed and I was left adrift. Say what you like about Seagulls, they are crudely built engineering-wise but that is where all modern outboards fail. Just imagine hammering the conrod of a Mariner straight and expecting it to work, assuming the piston or cylinder hadn't disintegrated in the first place!
 
I wanted a cheap outboard and somebody gave me a Seagul. It works reliably and was free.
If they'd given me a Yamaha 50 hp push button start super turbo with lifetime guarantee, I'd have taken that.
But they didn't.
 
The only two times I have had probs with a Seagull were plug failure, requiring a long row home and dropping the clutch in with too many revs in the dink in Bray Harbour in a gale, dunking it. First was a featherweight and the second was a Silver cent +. After the dunking, flushed out the fuel and it started 3rd or 4th pull. Both long ago.
Currently been given an almost mint 40+ and learnt from the SOS site how to regenerate the spark. Runs fine now. Somehow the noise is more acceptable than my Yam 3.5...and having been bought up on Seagulls, the guessing on fuel cut off to the quay and the mess (or not ) in the car are second nature.
A
 
orbister said:
My Yamaha 4 is another prime example. Despite a relatively easy life and annual professional servicing it seized at about 5 years old (binding rubber bush bearing) and finally died after about ten years when the gearbox housing corroded through in two places.
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What I don't get is why you need professional servicing of a small 2-stroke outboard? Back to the trusty Mariner. It is a single cylinder, pull start 2-stroke motor with raw watar cooling. It's no more complicated than my 50cc Motorbike when I was 16 and I could service that myself before I could spell Kawasaki.

I love the little old Seagulls but the complexity argument doesn't really stand against a small Japanese 2-Stroke.
 
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