Seagull remorse - does it exist?

Even Chance said:
Yep, and each one appeals to me at different times. I stand by both statements. The Engineer in me likes the engine for its noise and ambience. The sailor in me likes my quiet time, alone on the water. (and I mean alone, not like the South!)
I also stated that mine are purely auxillary, and very rarely used. I have to have an outboard on her in my home waters, simply because of the tides. You do realise I'm at the Eastern end of the Pentland Firth?
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and would the pristine waters of the Pentland Firth, which you clearly love so much, not benefit from you changing over to a cleaner auxilliary engine at very little cost to yourself?

Dylan
 
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Not really. The way things get flushed through it twice a day, a cup full of oil in 4 years aint ging to matter a bit in my opinion.
The fishing boats pump more into the harbour every time they fill up.

A newer outboard would be great, but only if it looked retro to suit the old boat, and the other most important bit, cost me £40 cos I cant afford anything new! lol
 
dancrane said:
They obviously can't see well or they'd recognise the oily film that attends their boats...
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I clearly remember a simple experiment that we used to do at school to calculate the thickness of a typical hydrocarbon molecule.

Take a large bowl of water.

Add a drop of oil from a pipette.

Measure the diameter of the resultant oil slick.

Divide volume loss from pipette by area of visible oil slick.

I seem to remember one very very very tiny drop spread out to one molecule thick.....

and filled the surface of a large bowl very quickly.


Perhaps some perspective can be gleaned from this.

I accept it is highly visible contamination of our environment

But get real the volume of the visible pollution on the water surface is tiny.

There are those that can see but some more that get emotional rather than analytical about pollution.

I am a modern 2 stroke user mainly because NONE of the current 4 stroke offerings will fit our outboard well with the equivalent power output. We often appreciate the grunt our 9.8 in our very tidal cruising ground.
In the interests of preserving the environment.

I currently use biodegradeable 2t oil.

I use my spinnaker when possible to avoid running my engine.

I would of course replace our 9.8 2T as soon as a suitable twin cylinder 4 stroke was available but only when our 2 stroke had become uneconomic to continue to operate.

This is called being practical and considering the full life cyle environmental cost.

Dylan I think you were an engineer. IMHO your hack life has taken away some of your ability to use your own analytical skills to assess some of the carp posted on the interweb.



Anybody want two dead seagulls..... But they could probably be economically repaired.......
 
dancrane another person who should mind his own business have you got a thing going with Dylan
you sound just like his clone.
i will run a 2stroke anytime i want its not anyone's business but my own...:)
 
Niander said:
dancrane another person who should mind his own business have you got a thing going with Dylan
you sound just like his clone.
i will run a 2stroke anytime i want its not anyone's business but my own...:)
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They both travel inland waters a lot. I think that makes a big difference.

Fresh water will not break down oils as quickly as sea water & there is generally much less water flow in navigable rivers than tidal harbours, plus the flow is always down stream so pollution tends to just travel along the river rather than disperse as in tidal salt waters.
 
Searush said:
Fresh water will not break down oils as quickly as sea water & there is generally much less water flow in navigable rivers than tidal harbours, plus the flow is always down stream so pollution tends to just travel along the river rather than disperse as in tidal salt waters.
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Blessed is the peace-maker...and since he's a Seagull user, I'm reluctant to be as frank as other Seagull users here, deserve.

Not sure why you thought I use inland waters though, Searush...the last six times I was afloat anywhere, it was on the IoW ferry. :rolleyes:
 
dancrane said:
Blessed is the peace-maker...and since he's a Seagull user, I'm reluctant to be as frank as other Seagull users here, deserve.

Not sure why you thought I use inland waters though, Searush...the last six times I was afloat anywhere, it was on the IoW ferry. :rolleyes:
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Well, actually, no. I own a Seagull 40 minus & a 2/- Suzuki 2hp but haven't used either of them for at least 2 years.

I actually prefer to row when I can, which is almost all the time. My MoBo colleagues in the NW Mob are well aware of my rowing skills & stamina, they constantly take the P. It's just too much hassle to get a motor out of the aft cabin & onto the dinghy when single-handed, rowing a couple of hundred yards in wind & tide is usually manageable if you choose your route carefully to take advantage of inshore eddies or tide. If the family are aboard then it is just as easy to have a person either side paddling so that the dinghy can be nicely overloaded for the trip ashore.

I am planning to try the Seagull on my 60 year old GP14 wooden Classic tho & that may well be on inland waters, but it will not be used for long, just a short run for the joy of it, & to see if it impacts on the ability to sail her. It might also be fun to try the 40 year old Stowaway folder with the Seagull for trips afloat when out with the Motorhome.
 
dylanwinter said:
I was a Seagull user for many years - I took great pleasure in the noise, in the astonishing engineering, in their ability to be drowned and then come back for more abuse, in their longevity, simplicity, the wonderful retro graphics.

I am an engineer by training so I understand how amazing and intrigueing they are

..... as museum pieces

do none of you guys feel bad about what Seagull outboards do to the water we sail in?
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Hey Dylan, I feel bad about it. The excessive pollution spoiled my pleasure when I used the motor.
Last summer I was motoring just upwind of some canoeists. They were paddling through a plume of blue smoke. I doubt they were savouring the glorious smell of Castrol R. After the trip I raised the outboard leg and watched as unburned oil dripped into the water.
I can no longer justify the use of the engine as there are so many cleaner alternatives available.
 
Searush said:
I actually prefer to row when I can, which is almost all the time. My MoBo colleagues in the NW Mob are well aware of my rowing skills & stamina, they constantly take the P..
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You're a hero, Searush. Anybody who takes the mickey out of oars is obviously a feeble physical inadequate...did you say they were MoBo types? :rolleyes:

steve350 said:
The excessive pollution spoiled my pleasure when I used the motor.
Last summer I was motoring just upwind of some canoeists. They were paddling through a plume of blue smoke. I doubt they were savouring the glorious smell of Castrol R. After the trip I raised the outboard leg and watched as unburned oil dripped into the water.
I can no longer justify the use of the engine as there are so many cleaner alternatives available.
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This is very encouraging. Honest, unselfish and Doing the Right Thing. It's a pity there aren't more like you, Steve. :)
 
This is interesting...

...whatever the rights & wrongs of the pro/anti Seagull argument, there are people on both sides who know how to interact without being obnoxious...

...and others, who conspicuously do not! :p




Does anybody remember this curiosity?

View attachment 28492

I recall them appearing, looking so very unlike traditional Seagulls...and fairly unlike any other outboard. Ugly thing, though I never saw one in use...

...were they two-strokes as well? What was the reason for the styling change?
 
Don't knock them until you have used one ..! The Seagull 170 is a powerful motor with forward and reverse. Underneath the cowelling it is very similar to other Seagull engines, 25:1 fuel mix. Good reliable engine quite capable of driving a 22' displacement hull. I use mine as a reliable backup engine. Sorry to disappoint the doubters and Seagull critics.
 
Just thought I would let other Seagull owners know that there is a very successful annual Seagull race starting at Lerryn in Cornwall around the end of December each year. About 50 craft take part and the haze of blue smoke clears as the boats power on down the river as the starting flag goes down. Great fun, and a pleasure to see so many vintage engines running. I have not noticed an oil slick on the river during the race and it's great to see so many people on the river in the depths of winter.
 
Cornish Bluenose said:
Just thought I would let other Seagull owners know that there is a very successful annual Seagull race starting at Lerryn in Cornwall around the end of December each year. About 50 craft take part and the haze of blue smoke clears as the boats power on down the river as the starting flag goes down. Great fun, and a pleasure to see so many vintage engines running. I have not noticed an oil slick on the river during the race and it's great to see so many people on the river in the depths of winter.
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Can you bring Dylan down to give the prizes - he'd be delighted!
 
Searush said:
They both travel inland waters a lot. I think that makes a big difference.

Fresh water will not break down oils as quickly as sea water & there is generally much less water flow in navigable rivers than tidal harbours, plus the flow is always down stream so pollution tends to just travel along the river rather than disperse as in tidal salt waters.
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Steve
I worked in Egypt, Zeit Bay, the arabic for oil is zeit apparently. It was in the desert boardering on the Red Sea. It was pristine, the sea, the desert, etc. Went exploring one day, found a cave, in it was oil seepage and a crude furnace built in to the rock. It must have worked well because it had melted the rock. The lads told me it had been there since time began. Oil seeped out of the rocks, that was why it was called Zeit bay. The oil decomposed, it didnt feck the enviroment, much as the zillions of gallons of oil hasnt fecked the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is a natural product, it decomposes, it has since time began. Dylan and co, get over a bit of oil from a seagull!
Stu
 
Niander said:
Why not try and do something about those bloody scallop dredgers raping and destroying the seabed?...
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Ah! Something we can agree on. Although...

(I've been out of the loop since Tuesday, so I'm surprised this subject hasn't moved on...perhaps my email is slow, I'm still abroad in a remote spot)

...perhaps there's a collective reluctance to point the finger at dredgers, when we didn't like being criticized for anchoring in 'sensitive' spots...

...though the recent TV footage which showed an 'underwater desert' in a scallop-dredging area, didn't look like anything that anchors could have caused.
 
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