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I have an opportunity to purchase a British Seagull Silver 2.5 HP. This motor is extremely clean with no rust and while I have not had the opportunity to start it it seems to have good compression and the carb (Amal) seems to be in good shape. Not much else involved in a two stroke engine. The owner is asking $350.00 which is about half of what I have seen advertised on Ebay and elsewhere. This one seems to be about the same age as my boat (44 years old) but is spotless.

Has anyone had any experience with Seagulls. Can anyone tell me anything, pitfalls, good points. etc

Thanks
Norman

Hey Norman!

Some will say that these motors trail oil in the water like the Exxon Valdez but beside that detail they seem to be impossible to kill.

Michel wrote:Hey Norman!

Some will say that these motors trail oil in the water like the Exxon Valdez but beside that detail they seem to be impossible to kill.

When I was a kid I had a 250cc Jawa motorcycle, a two stroke. No one would let me ride ahead of them because of the oil that spewed out of the tailpipe!!!! I looked like I was spraying for mosquitoes

I heard that about the Seagulls as well. I also heard that the early models used a 10 to 1 ratio oil to gas but the "newer" ones were 25 to 1 so the oil trails should be a lot less. This is one of the later models.

I think another big issue is is the shaft long enough for my boat. This is the short shaft model.

There is plenty of information and opinion about them on the West Wight Potter Forum. Go to the Trailer Sailor Forum, and then the WWP forum, and then put British Seagull in the forum search. Best of luck!

Friends with SCAMPS wrote:There is plenty of information and opinion about them on the West Wight Potter Forum. Go to the Trailer Sailor Forum, and then the WWP forum, and then put British Seagull in the forum search. Best of luck!

Thank you very much. I also found some info on the Wooden Boat forum.

Somebody needs to make a Seagull replica with a modern engine that always starts and isn't a 2 strike, but looks the same or very similar.

I was at the maritime Museum in St. Michaels Maryland this weekend for the Mid-Atlantic Small Boats festival.. they had a lot of small and ancient outboards in the one building on display, but no seagulls!

I always enjoyed my SG and I could even get it started even after being swamped in the Houston Ship Channel.

Here's an interesting website on British Seagull.

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/index.html

Once you identify the series there are detail pages . . .

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/i_ ... series.htm