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Seagull Outboards

The history Seagull Outboards – the legendary low-tech two-strokers, the man who can fix them and how to start a Seagull For those who have not had the pleasure of coming across one – and there can’t be many sailors over a certain age – a Seagull Outboard is a small two-stroke, one-cylinder, petrol outboard engine produced by the British Seagull Company, between its conception in 1931 (under the Sunbeam Motorcycle Company) and its demise in 1996.

The Seagull Outboard was originally designed as a workboat engine for inshore fishermen and their wooden powerboats, and others who needed a simple, robust motor. After the war, small boat cruising exploded in popularity – and so did the Seagull.

In its heyday of the 1970s, British Seagull was selling over 80,000 motors a year – small, affordable, bullet-proof outboards barely changed since before the war, for pushing the tender, dinghy or the pocket cruiser along at a few knots when the wind dropped. The company even had its own foundries for the production of components.

The Seagull has become one of the few engines ever to achieve cult status, the nautical counterpart of the motor that powered Vespas, another one-cylinder two-stroke petrol engine designed to mobilise working Italy. Even those who don’t know about  Seagull Outboards might recall Jude Law’s dinghy scene with Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley .

John Williams is a man who has devoted his life to saving old Seagulls. Following the Blackwater River to meet him in his corner of rural Essex, I began to form a picture of him: he would fall into that peculiarly English category: the kindly, eccentric old boy; king of the garden shed and fusty, friendly curator of his own childhood.

As we sat in his kitchen and John, in his British Seagull sweater, talked about his beloved engines, it became clear that John is a more modern sort of creature. He talked optimistically about the possibility of siting wind-generators in his part of Essex and about how he has learned to run his own website since the death of his close friend who built it.

I wasn’t entirely wrong either: John is the king of not one, but two garden sheds, one housing Seagulls in various stages of refurbishment, and the other stacked to the ceiling with spares. This is where the Gulls come to roost.

“It all started with my own sailing. I had a Mirror and wanted an outboard. Everybody – literally everybody – had a Seagull in the 60s and 70s, and I had an affinity with the things. I could make them work when others couldn’t. I love them for their simplicity and honesty. They’re a bit like me I suppose! Aesthetically, I also find them very attractive.”

John talked about the beginning of the affair – an affair that, like Don Street’s, sometimes tries the patience of his family. The appeal of Seagulls is powerful. The low-tech wonder only has three moving parts at the engine end of the shaft, and for many, the functional styling has its own visual appeal. After an accident in a classroom in the early 90s, John had to retire from the police force where he had worked for nearly 29 years, the last 20 as a boatman on the Thames. His plan to teach boathandling as a civilian was dashed by his injury which prevented him gaining his medical pass. Worried about impending legislation to ban two-stroke engines, and up against  competition from quieter, more modern four-stroke outboards, British Seagull was in a similar plight. The company had slashed manufacturing in 1993, and it was clear to many that the end was nigh.

As a result of this, dealers lost interest in servicing Seagull Outboard motors, as greater profit was to be made from servicing and fixing more complex modern engines under guarantee. John took over the upkeep of Seagulls, clearing the factory of spares, and buying up yet more bits and pieces from chandleries and dealers.

Today, his home and his life are their sanctuary. From 1994 to 1996, John was Seagull’s technical adviser, and ran their stand at the London Boat Show. “One year a group of navy divers came to the stand. They had recovered a Seagull in Plymouth Sound and were amazed that the flywheel – covered in weed and barnacles – still moved. They put it on the skipper’s RIB for a laugh, and it went buzzing around with weeds flailing off it.”

It’s a common story. Many of the phone calls John receives are from people who have found a Seagull in the loft, pulled the cord three times and been amazed to hear the thing start. “They always do – and often on the third pull,” says John. “There must be absolutely thousands in cellars and lofts around Britain.”

As if to prove it, a sailing couple arrive with three seagulls in the boot; found in a shed of course. Saving Old Seagulls, as John calls his operation, is a busy concern. The phone rings all day, half a dozen orders for parts arrive every morning, and a stream of emails beg for help.

John services and repairs engines in the winter, and in the summer gives advice and sells parts, if he’s not off sailing his Eventide. He makes enough from it to keep his boat in Burnham Marina, but what drives him more is his passion to keep the machines running. He won’t sell a part if it’s not strictly necessary, first vetting customers on the phone to ensure they really need it.

Alongside his work on the engines, John is a keen historian of the company. People from around the world send him posters and literature, and it’s this dated advertising from a more innocent era that is part of the folklore of these motors. A pre-war example has a drawing of two men in a sailing dinghy accompanied by the sing-song verse: “One-designs can venture, Far from home all day, As long as they’ve a Seagull … Stashed away. Telephone Poole 818.” When pressed for tips on maintaining Seagulls, John suggests keeping one’s voice down when boating, “as sound travels over water, and there’s already enough trouble waiting for you ashore”. For a second I doubt his sanity, but the mystifying advice is another eccentric snippet published by Seagull in their gloriously vintage marketing blurb.

“Make no mistake,” warns John. “Seagull Outboards are tough old birds, but they won’t last forever.” The lifespan of a Seagull Outboard is about 25-40 years, at which point the cylinder-blocks corrode beyond redemption. This is the Seagull’s death cry, as the blocks are running out, although Sheridan Marine still make a good range of other spares.

John’s larger shed, which he uses as the workshop, contains over three dozen of the machines, standing upright under tarps waiting to see what the future will bring. Some will be broken for parts, some resurrected, and some simply junked. Later, we stand in John’s garden running one of the engines, ears straining for the moment when the syncopated sputtering of a Seagull “four-stroking” on idle becomes a blurred waspish buzz, an engine note as distinctive as an air-cooled VW Beetle.

The water churning in the tub is black with discharged oil and carbon. The Seagull Outboard in action is living up to its reputation as a smelly, noisy, dirty engine. But it’s not all bad news: a 14ft (4.3m) dinghy puttering along at 3 knots with a small Seagull running on biodegradable two-stroke oil on half throttle burns only a shade over two pints (1.1L) of fuel an hour and does no harm to the riverbank.

A 70s magazine advertisement for the Seagull Company explains that “to attempt to drive an ordinary displacement boat faster than hull speed is a waste of time, money, power and fuel and creates all the wash and disturbance”. The pragmatic, slightly fussy tone of the message – so of its time – is an antithesis of the more sentimentally phrased messages we hear today.

That Seagulls hail from an era when responsibility to the    environment meant  “rinsing and returning”, means a lot today as the motors grow older. John explains why: a modern outboard is without argument a more efficient motor than a Seagull Outboard, with its crude carburettor: but a modern outboard wears out after 7-10 years, something many owners find hard to come to terms with after owning a Seagull that powered three generations through the water. And the biggest waste of energy produced by any engine is in its manufacture, something recognised by the Department of Trade and Industry when it gave its Green Apple Award for environmental friendliness to the Morris Minor, in many ways the Seagull Outboard’s automotive counterpart: over-engineered, fault-tolerant, and capable of huge mileage on few, recyclable parts. Fittingly, it’s also the van – Seagull liveried – that John drives.

This longevity is something Seagull owners can be proud of, but it’s not why they own them. For some, Seagull Outboards represent the same values they always have:they’re cheap, practical engines. With most owners though, it’s about nostalgia, a whiff of Maurice Griffiths’ world or a reliving of childhood. John explains: “A man came in the other day with his eight-year-old son [and a Seagull]. His dad had it, and now he wants his kid to have it; happens all the time.”

The Seagull Outboard, like anything, has a limited life but for many thousands hiding in attics, lofts and sheds, the autumn of their lives will begin many years from now when someone digs them out, pulls the cord once… twice… and they will whirr back into life. When the powers that be ban the manufacture of all two-stroke engines, the Seagulls will be waiting. And long may they live.

How to start your Seagull Outboard motor engine

1   Undo the air bleed on top of the tank

2  Let the fuel out of the tank by pulling the fuel tap out

3  Tickle the carburettor till it floods

4  Flip down the metal choke

5  Set throttle to halfway or a little more

6  Ensure it’s in neutral – if there is one

7  Give it a smart pull

For more information on Seagull Outboard motor engines:

Read our 15 top tips for running and maintaining a Seagull Outboard motor

Visit John William’s website: www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk

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One Wing Flapping – Seagull Outboard

Posted by John Vigor | BWI Award-Winning Articles , Engine , Projects

Irascible and indomitable, the British Seagull was not for the faint of heart.

L ong before the Energizer Bunny, there was the British Seagull outboard motor. Conceived in the 1930s, it was ugly, dirty, loud, and smelly, but like the bunny, it kept going. And going. It kept going so long that it became a collector’s piece, a cult engine. Many are still in use today, more than 60 years after manufacture, often clamped to the transoms of vintage wooden yachts.

The passing years have endowed the British Seagull with its own folklore. The yachting scene is awash with stories about Seagulls, mostly apocryphal, but plenty of them true enough. For example, there’s the one about the Seagull that was used as an emergency overnight anchor. It was recovered the next morning, attached to the transom, and started at the third pull.

And there’s the Seagull story to cap all others, the one about the motor that was recovered by divers after 10 years under water. It, too, started at the third pull. (As far as storytelling goes, the third pull is a nice touch. Nobody would believe you if you said it started at the first pull. But the third pull adds a touch of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative, which ensures that the story, like the engine, will keep going and going.)

Some stories are based on facts that just might be true, but probably aren’t, such as those insisting that a Seagull will run on kerosene —or even sunflower oil—in a pinch. Others bear the ring of truth, like this one from a sailor in New Zealand who wrote on a sailing bulletin board: “Had a Seagull backfire and start running backwards. Starter cord was still hooked in the slot. Starter cord gave me a good whipping, about 15 good welts down the back of my arm before I could rip the plug wire off. I found the base plate loose and the timing was out.”

To anyone stumbling across a Seagull for the first time, it must be an odd-looking beast. It could have come straight off Rube Goldberg’s drawing board. At first sight, you’d be forgiven for thinking that someone had at last discovered the missing link between oars and Evinrudes. Someone might even have dug the original Seagull out of the fossil beds of the white cliffs of Dover.

As a piece of engineering, it is primitive in the extreme. It could have been designed by an 11-year-old with an Erector set—a couple of long pipes with a disc on top and a large propeller at the bottom. There was a metal gas tank perched up high and a rudimentary carburetor on one side. At a guess, it might have been an overgrown kitchen blender, or a hedge cutter, or a portable fan.

Could this strange machine possibly have come from the same country that made those superb Sunbeam motorcycles? The same country that invented Rolls-Royces and Spitfires? Well, yes, actually.

Two engineers share the credit (or blame) for inventing the Seagull, a machine that was one small step for man and one large step backward for mankind, environmentally speaking. They are John Way-Hope and Bill Pinniger. Both men worked for the marine division of the Sunbeam Motor Company.

They produced the first Seagulls in the 1930s, and the design remained essentially unchanged for the next 60 years until production ceased in 1996. Their idea was to build an engine that was simple to operate and maintain, a lightweight, portable outboard designed to drive a small, slow-moving boat at hull speed under all conditions of wind and sea. To this end, it was given a large multi-bladed propeller with a fine pitch.

As far as maintenance went , it was said that all you needed in the way of tools was a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and an adjustable wrench.

There were two engine blocks, each supporting a single cylinder. The first, displacing 64 cubic centimeters and known as the model Forty, produced between 11/2 and 3 horsepower. The second engine, displacing 102 cubic centimeters and known as the Century model, developed anything from 4 to 6 horsepower. The differences in power came about because over the years there were some 90 variations of the two basic designs in the form of different carburetors, gear ratios, propellers, and shaft lengths.

During the Seagull’s heyday in the 1970s, the factory was producing about 80,000 engines a year. Some—just a few—featured a dog clutch and neutral gears, but on the majority of Seagulls, the propeller kept spinning as long as the engine was running. That, combined with the fact that there was no way of stopping the engine quickly (unless you were lucky enough to have an extra-long throttle cable that would push past the idle position) made coming alongside a boat, a pier, or a mooring buoy fraught with excitement.

Now, more than 60 years later and more than 20 years after they were last manufactured, there are still hundreds of used models for sale in various parts of the world. And plenty of spare parts, too. You’ll find lots on eBay and on several specialized British Seagull websites.

Admittedly, this homely little engine exudes a certain air of je ne sais quoi , but that doesn’t explain why it is so sought after, although part of its popularity may be due to the endearing eccentricity that surrounds the Seagull. The people who built it and sold it were undoubtedly eccentric, so it’s no wonder they produced an outboard reminiscent of a smelly old uncle set aside at a family reunion—disreputable, but still loved.

Who else would build a motor that had no clutch, or reverse gear? Who else would build an engine without a cover, with an exposed magneto flywheel? A motor you had to start by twisting a bit of rope around the flywheel and pulling like crazy until whiplash made you (and anyone else within range) give up.

In the eyes of the Seagull’s builders, to provide a clutch on an outboard motor was to pander to weak-minded sissies. The same applied to a recoil starter. Real sailors used a real starter cord. And only wimps complained when the sleeves of their sweaters were ripped off by an exposed, whirring magneto flywheel. Buyers of Seagulls were expected to display a stiff British upper lip, dammit.

I first became aware of the manufacturers’ eccentricities when my friend, Bernie Borland, wanted to buy a 51/2-horsepower Seagull for a small sailboat he owned. While he was in England on business, he went to Seagull headquarters in Poole, Dorset. There he met a woman he understood to be the owner of the British Seagull factory.

“I’d like to buy a 51/2-horsepower Seagull, please.”

“What for?”

“How do you mean?” Bernie asked. “It’s for a boat.”

The woman stared right back. “What boat?”

“An 11-foot boat. An International Mirror.”

“You can’t have it,” she said. “I won’t sell that motor for a Mirror, it’s too big. Seagulls like to run hot, under load, otherwise they oil up. I’ll sell you a 2½-horsepower model, the Forty. Nothing more. It’s plenty.”

And so Bernie, despite feeling somewhat browbeaten by Ms. Seagull but strangely privileged at having been allowed to buy one of her engines, came flying home with a small Seagull in his excess baggage. It was, as the woman said, plenty.

The Seagull Owner’s Handbook was another example of corporate eccentricity. “The world of engine owners is divided into two classes…the vast majority are those who never get into any trouble and get heaps of pleasure, whilst the second class is a very small minority, which is always in trouble, causing misery to itself and constantly drawing on the kindness and good fellowship of other people for aid and assistance.”

This mournful document was not a great deal of help when it came to advice about what to do if your engine wouldn’t run. There was little information in the way of a troubleshooting guide to turn to. The Seagull experts had boiled it down to only one suggestion: “Check the spark plug.”

And in case owners didn’t quite understand this simple advice, the handbook continued: “But will people do this? No, they won’t . . . instead, they go on pulling the starting cord for twenty minutes or so, pumping more and more petrol into the engine, filling the plug with oil, and then have to row home, and sometimes (if they’ve got the strength) write a furious letter to the manufacturers. We have no sympathy with these people at all . . .”

One has to wonder how many furious letters provoked them to include this addition.

In my youth, I motored hundreds of miles on European waterways. The boat was a 17-foot daysailer. The motor was a Seagull. Its single cylinder housed a very sloppy piston, topped by a spinning, exposed flywheel that allegedly made electricity for the spark plug. Tacked on to one side was the simple carburetor. The float bowl had a small button sticking out of the top that I knew to press down with a finger until the whole thing flooded and overflowed with gasoline. This was known in Seagull circles as “tickling the carb.” A spreading rainbow sheen on the water around me was my signal to wind the starter cord around the disc on top, flick closed the crude metal slide that served as a choke, and pull like mad.

After I was hit on the back of my neck by the starter cord as it came off the flywheel, there were two ways I had to tell whether the motor had started or not.

The first was to listen for a great echoing, gurgling roar, a noise fit to wake the dead. Anyone could hear a Seagull coming from miles away. The second was to observe a great cloud of blue-white smoke rising from the water astern. That was the exhaust, which consisted of 50 percent burned gasoline and 50 percent lubricating oil, just slightly singed by the Bronze Age combustion process.

The exhaust added its own smear of oil to the water around the stern, of course—though smear might be too wispy a word to describe the fearful results of a Seagull’s passage through the water. It was often said that you couldn’t get lost if you had a Seagull; you just followed the smoking oil streaks back home.

One afternoon, while I motored along an otherwise quiet canal in Belgium, the gas tank fell off and nearly went overboard. I screwed it down to the afterdeck and fed gas to the carburetor via a plastic tube. It worked just fine that way.

As forecast in the owner’s manual, the spark plug frequently oiled up and stopped the engine, usually in moments of crisis, often when a huge barge was approaching head-on and seeming to fill a narrow canal. At times like that I needed asbestos fingers to remove the old plug and screw in a clean one with lightning speed.

My Seagull was a two-stroke, of course, so I had to mix thick, gooey engine oil in with the gasoline so that the clunky bits inside the engine received adequate lubrication. Built before 1979, mine ran on a gas-to-oil mixture of 10:1. Later models ran on a ratio of 1:25 (even this was about four times as much as modern two-strokes used before they were deemed unacceptably polluting at 100:1). The Seagull was (and still is) the ultimate global-warming machine.

As I suspect is the case with all Seagulls, mine had its unique set of eccentricities. It wouldn’t start if the exhaust pipe was too far under water (the back pressure was too much). It overheated if I left it to idle (the water pump couldn’t lift water to the power head at low revs). There was a strange seal at the prop shaft that seemed to have been deliberately designed to leak. The seal allowed oil to escape. Water replaced it, and the gearbox was filled with a gray-brown slurry. I learned later that Seagulls were designed from the beginning without a proper oil seal, the gears were expected to run on an emulsion of oil and water. It seemed to work just fine.

To be fair, there were some advantages to the Seagull. For a start, it made people laugh. The noise and the smoke attracted attention to itself and its owner. It would run while tilted over to an angle of 45 degrees when we were under sail. And, finally, a Seagull owner could throw it away in a fit of rage without feeling any remorse.

I’ll leave you with some Seagull thoughts from the well-known boating writer, editor, and Seagull owner, Chris Caswell, the winner of more than 50 awards for writing and yachting journalism. Chris has been the editor of Sea magazine and a longtime senior editor of Yachting magazine, so he knows what he is talking about:

“So how do you stop a Seagull? In theory, you could just shut off the fuel, which would kill it in an hour or two. But, since the sturdy four-bladed prop was still spinning, that wasn’t realistic in most situations. One way was to put your hand over the carb air intake but, if it happened to backfire before stopping, it would install a perfectly round (and quite painful) blister on your palm. Another way was to pull the plug wire, but if it wasn’t absolutely insulated (and it rarely was), this would provide great amusement to anyone watching as you did a St. Vitus dance from a blast of electricity. I knew one Seagull owner who kept a short length of lumber that he would shove carefully into the prop to stall the engine…

“Thinking back on the Seagulls I’ve owned, I wish I had one now. Smelly, noisy, and oily, Seagulls were like an aging favorite dog with fleas and mange, you loved it anyway. I’d hang the Seagull on my wall like a museum piece, just so I could look at it and I’d laugh and relive my childhood memories. The Seagull taught a generation of sailors about boat handling, and even today I never get in a dinghy that doesn’t have oars.”

About The Author

John Vigor is a retired journalist and the author of 12 books about small boats, among them Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Sailing, which won the prestigious John Southam Award, and Small Boat to Freedom. A former editorial writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, he’s also the former editor of Sea magazine and a former copy editor of Good Old Boat. A national sailing dinghy champion in South Africa’s International Mirror Class, he now lives in Bellingham, Washington. Find him at johnvigor.com.

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The novel engine number identifier has been restored, see button on the left.  But if you have a problem you can still find out about your motor the old way, by using this page and the full engine numbers by following the links below...

It is very important to quote the engine number when ordering spares or making enquires about your engine. To identify your motor,  Click here to go to the Seagull Engine Numbers page and search the lists for your I.D. letters, these are the first set of letters in the sequence. i.e. 'AD' That will give you the type of British Seagull, (102 direct drive), the number in some early cases will give you a rough guide to the year. Note the numbers ran through several different models that were being built at the same time. After 1963 there was a letter and number at the end of the sequence to denote month and year A = January 3 = 1963. In 1973 the codes continued with double letters, i.e. AA 3= January 1973.

To add to the identification problems there are anomalies. For instance British Seagull used the letter 'R' to denote a motor had been reconditioned, but there is no indication when the reconditioning might have been completed. (Just to add to the confusion they used 'R' on some very late models with the ill fated roller bearings). The letter 'L' was used to denote 'longshaft'. In early years this was added to the end of the number code, later, from 1963 it was added to the prefix, i.e. FPL,= Forty Plus Longshaft. Watch out for the E for electronic ign, the G for Bing carb or the A for Amal, all prefixes!

Another problem is the inconsistency in the letter codes for the months. British Seagull did not use some letters as they could be confused or were in use elsewhere, so there are no letter I's, or O's and it should be that December equates to 'M', however the letter 'N' has been found, so perhaps they lost another letter at some point? I do believe they did not use the letter 'L'. Sadly when these pages were thrust into my hand, as I cleared the factory, there were no explanatory notes.

Thought you might like a few pics of a cutaway model I have. Produced by the Villiers apprentices about 1970.

See if you can spot the error... Pete Whiting did, he was the first....  I had not noticed and i have still not stripped it to put it right!!

Pics by courtesy of Classic Boat Magazine.

To trace your engine number, click the here or the "Don't Forget" picture at the very bottom of this page for an explanation and a list of engine numbers by model. 

Then use the buttons at the top of the page to see more details of your model.

Details from an old Seagull poster

Horse Powers

There has been a lot of myth and nonsense surrounding the power output of the British Seagull. There were, in the classic range, two power units, a 64cc and a 102cc (the original 102 cc motor of the 1930's existed alongside the later Century and Silver Century 102cc units.)

By fitting a variety of different gearboxes a range of power outputs were obtained. They classified them as follows.

Square block models.

Forty minus :- 1 to 1.5 hp, later as 1 to 2 hp, or later still, (before being called the 45), just 2hp.

Forty Plus (direct drive):- 1.5 to 2.5 hp, later as 2 to 3 hp

Forty Plus, Clutch Drive:- 3hp

The Century:- 4hp ( Villiers carb.)

Silver Century, :- 3 to 4.5hp  (Amal carbed version of the Century.)

Century Plus, clutch drive 4.5hp.

Silver Century Plus, clutch drive, 4 to 5.5, later 5 hp.

When tested none of these motors gave the rated output, indeed they struggled to achieve more than 1, (yes ONE), horse power! 

Other motors

Model 102, Direct or Clutch drive:- 3.5 to 4 hp

Model 102 Plus Clutch drive:-3.5 to 5 hp

Model 170:- hp not given as after 1980 Trades Descriptions Act! believed to be 7.5 hp!

Model 125:- again not given, but approx 5 hp.

QB curlew:- 4hp 

QB Osprey:- 5hp

QB Kingfisher:- 6hp.

(There was one other, the ill fated twin cylinder motor of the 1930's, that gave 10hp!)

As you can see, there was only one 6hp model and only a couple of others, both ill fated, that gave more. It was the slow running props that gave the push, that made British Seagulls useful. They were designed to push heavy loads at displacement speeds, all day if needed. 

The origins of the model Numbers.

 Talking to one of the directors of the old ‘British Seagull’ company at a London Boat show a few years ago, I learnt the real reason for the dropping of the traditional ‘Featherweight’, the ‘Forty Plus’, ‘Century’ and Century Plus’ names.

It seems that the change was instigated when the ‘Trades Descriptions Act’ was to become law in the UK. It was found that the vague hp ratings of the motors were a little awry. To comply with the new law it was thought that the thrust at the prop, (measured in pounds of 'bollard pull'), was more important, thus the ‘Featherweight’ became the ‘45’ and so on. 

The ‘Silver Century Plus’ they developed into the ‘Model 110’ by the inclusion of the reversing gearbox fitted to the ‘170’, (thus escaping the duff con rod syndrome)! The ‘110’ number was given to make it one model up from the 100, or ‘Century’. This model was numbered down to ‘90’ when the thrust at the prop was measured. The ‘Model 90’ became the ‘Classic 5’ in the last days of ‘Chillington’, but sadly was dropped, one reason was the selling price, over £1000, but the final nail was the loss of the tooling for the gearbox cap, which is still unobtainable. (Fortunately a part that is rarely if ever needed as a spare, and I have some, if needed!)

Sadly, although the new numbers were ‘correct’, I and most others, still refer to our British Seagulls by their previous names. I think most of us prefer the old names. 

Oddly in the last days of ‘Chillington Marine’ they went back to hp numbers. The ‘Kingfisher’ became the ‘British Seagull‘6’. The ‘Osprey the ‘British Seagull 5’ etc. Thus it was the ‘Featherweight’ that became the ‘45’, ended it’s days as the ’Classic 2’, the last engine type that was produced, to order only, up to 1996.

By then the codes were getting silly, TSEF prefix was one of the last, it included the information that it was fitted with a twistgrip!

John Williams

Click box below to seethe model identification numbers.

Sorry if there is a slight delay in me getting back to you, I am having so many mails sent in these days...

If I am not answering the phone, this might give you a clue to where I might be if it's good sailing weather! 

 UK queries may be better by phone, as I can ask you those extra little questions that might solve a problem easier. (Like why your 102 has a century plus gearbox!)

Phone me on 01621 778859 Mon to Friday 9am to 8pm.

Saturday till mid-day,, callers outside these times will be politely asked to call back., i am catching up on mails as fast as i can, but as i get so many these days, there may be a slight delay...,  if using outlook, click on the bottle to email me..., john williams., saving old seagulls, copyright: saving old seagulls © 2001 all photographs and text are copyright of sheridan marine (british seagull) and/or sos (saving old seagulls). reproduction of any of this site is forbidden without written permission of sos. web design by spectrum systems:- sadly barry the webmaster died 19.04.05 a sad loss of a good friend, taken by cancer aged 55. new webmaster peter webster of seagullparts after the sad and premature death of peter i am indebted to andrew laing in bermuda for stepping up to assist, www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk - the place for free british seagull advice and information, spare parts and free forum..

BoatNews.com

The British Seagull outboard motor, the Solex of the sea..

Launched in 1930, the British Seagull is an outboard motor of English origin that has survived the decades. A look back at the backstory of a monument of marine mechanics.

Rustic mechanics

At the origin of the British Seagull saga are two engineers from Sunbeam, which was an English motorcycle manufacturer. John Way-Hope, who had worked for Evinrude , and engineer Bill Pinniger, bought patents from their company and formed Marston Seagull in 1934.

After several years of research, they brought out their first outboard in 1938, which was immediately proclaimed "Engine of the Year". Renaming their company British Seagull, John and Bill designed innovative engines that were easy for novices to use.

This rusticity, a guarantee of reliability (what does not exist cannot break down) inspired the subtle advertising slogan: "The best outboard motor for the world" (and not in the world)! [the best outboard motor FOR the world (and not the best outboard motor IN the world)] .

The landing of 1944 gave him his reputation

Shortly after the launch of the British Seagull, World War II broke out and British industry mobilized for a naval landing. The British Seagull is chosen to equip the Allied armada.

Because of its great simplicity, it was produced in very large numbers for the June 1944 landings. Just like the Harley-Davidsons or the Coca-Cola, a swarm of British Seagulls landed on the beaches of Normandy and never left France again.

Ugly and noisy, but full of charm..

The British Seagull is not designed for speed . Unsuitable for gliding hulls, Seagull vessels were designed to move heavy loads over short distances. Its rectangular-bladed propeller was designed to plough the sea, not to toss a dinghy .

But this reliable and capricious engine is perfectly suited to a traditional boat . Its petrol/oil mixture varying between 4 and 10% gives it a high level of lubrication, but is far from current environmental standards.

A production spread over almost 60 years

The range, available in twelve models from 3 to 10 hp, has changed little throughout its commercial career. Production peaked in the 1960s, with the boom in pleasure boating. Refusing to change in the face of competition from American (Johnson, Evinrude , Mercury) and Japanese ( Yamaha , Suzuki and Tohatsu ) engine manufacturers, British Seagull then saw its sales decline over the years.

The development of the competition highlights the Seagull's shortcomings: no automatic rewinding of the starter rope , no fairing of the power head, some models without neutral or reverse gear, no remote fuel tank and carburettor feed by gravity, no autolube petrol/oil mixing system. There are countless users who have burned themselves on the power head or on the apparent exhaust.

Being limited to a niche market with a traditional customer base, sales are collapsing and British Seagull will have to stop production in 1996. But the firm continues to produce the parts needed to maintain the hundreds of thousands of engines manufactured since the 1930s. Numerous owners' associations were formed in the United Kingdom , the United States, Canada and Australia . Today, a large number of British Seagull engines are still in circulation.

With a low market value, the Seagulls stand out in the midst of electric speedboats or sanitized 4-strokes, but continue to hold a love rating with traditional yachting enthusiasts.

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British Seagull was a British manufacturer of 2-stroke outboard engines from the early 1930s until the mid-1990s. The company went out of business due to the motor design not being able to keep up with more modern boat engines and increasingly tight emissions regulations. British Seagull no longer produces new engines but its successor, Sheridan Marine, as well as others still supply some parts.

More from British Seagull.com .

The original design was one of many initiated by the original manufacturers, John Marston Ltd and the Sunbeam Motor Company, the makers of the famous Sunbeam motorcycles. We do, however, understand that the design was developed as a marine engine rather than an adapted industrial engine. This is probably one of the major reasons for their endurance and success.

By 1931 the first Seagulls, sold as the Marston Seagull, were in full production, these were much the same in design as the more modern engines and incorporated innovative ideas such as reverse gears and water-cooled exhausts. The engines were available in both short and long shaft and the models ranged from the Standard and the High Power through to the Super High Power. This engine was a twin cylinder 10hp version capable of powering boats up to 30 feet (9.1m).

The two men credited with the continued development of the Seagull engine are John Way-Hope, who had worked for Evinrude, and Bill Pinniger, a design engineer. They met while working in the marine division of the Sunbeam Motor Company. After acquiring the manufacturing rights and patents for the Marston Seagull engines they set up the Bristol Motor Company in Bristol and financed the purchase of those patents with dealings in light aircraft and expensive sports cars. By 1938 they had consolidated the design of the engine and had moved into new premises on the Quay at Poole, Dorset. To celebrate this milestone the name Marston Seagull was changed to British Seagull and the engine was proclaimed as ‘The Best Outboard Motor in the World’ – later changed to ‘The Best Outboard Motor for the World’.

At this time they cut the range to one engine, reverse gears were dispensed with as Way-Hope considered them as ‘a rather sissy refinement, rendered superfluous by efficient boat handling’. However, their patented ‘Positive and Self-Adjusting Free-Engine Clutch’ was considered by them to be so near perfection that no serious alteration to the 1938 design was contemplated until the mid-1960s. Way-Hope and Pinniger’s concept was to use the best materials possible for the punishing marine environment.

“We believe the Admiralty’s request for a ‘rough and ready’ version of the ‘102’ for use on light assault craft help to establish the company.” The engine needed little alteration; the Navy required an engine that would run non-stop for 24 hours. This wartime success developed the next batch of engines, the 40 Minus in 1949, the 40 Plus in 1952 and the Century and Century Plus by 1955/56. As each engine was designed a number of prototypes were produced, some over many years, fishermen and company members tested all these in ‘real life’ situations. This together with their ‘concept of power output’ meant that this established Seagull’s worldwide reputation as a no-nonsense design suitable for extremes of climate from the Antarctic to tropical heat and also able to sustain considerable user abuse and total immersion.

By the mid 1950s British Seagull had moved to new premises at Fleets Bridge, Poole where they reached their all-time peak during the 1960s. At this time everything except the gears and the carburettors were made on site.

In 1982 British Seagull moved again to premises at Newtown Business Park, Poole and launched the large 7.5hp Model 170. This engine featured an engine cover and was the forerunner of the QB Series. The QB Series was introduced at the 1987 London Boat Show with the 6hp Kingfisher; soon followed by the 5hp Osprey and the 4hp Curlew. This design represented the very latest in two-stroke technology in conjunction with Queens University, Belfast who are regarded as one of the world’s leaders in innovative engine research.

In 1996 the production of the British Seagull outboard engines ceased but the Spare Parts supply continued in its renowned friendly and highly personal way. In 1999, Chillington Marine Ltd, the owners at that time of British Seagull decided to pull out of the marine leisure market handing over responsibility for the British Seagull name to Sheridan Marine on the River Thames in Oxfordshire. “We have continued the manufacture and supply, where possible, of original spare parts re-introducing some discontinued items in the last few years.”

Another great source for information and spares is the website: Saving-Old-Seagulls.co.uk . This terrific site lists other sources for Seagull information, parts and service around the globe.

More from  www.britishseagull.co.uk . and www.britishseagull.com . and Saving-Old-Seagulls.co.uk .

Vendor's Contact Information

British Seagull > Chillington Marine Ltd > Sheridan Marine Newtown Business Park, Poole, UK . Website:  www.britishseagull.com

Sheridan Marine — COMPLETE ENGINES & PARTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE. The Boathouse Moulsford, Oxfordshire, OX10 9HU, United Kingdom Toll Free: Telephone: 01491 652085 Fax Line: 01491 652990 Website:  http://www.sheridanmarine.com/britishseagull Contact Form: Email: info#sheridanmarine.com

Sheridan Marine is situated in Moulsford on the River Thames between Goring and Wallingford on the A329. By river the Boatyard and Chandlery is between Benson and Cleeve locks. Summer Hours (from mid March to the end of October) Open everyday except Friday Open Monday thru Thursday from 9.30am to 5.30pm Sundays from 10am to 4pm Winter Hours (from November until the end of March) Open Monday thru Friday from 9.30am to 5pm.

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Vendor's Offerings

British Seagull 2-Stroke Cycle Petrol (Gasoline) Outboard Motors

The main engines produced through most of the company’s history can be divided into two main types, the Model 102 and the Classic models. The Model 102 was a development of the very early Marston models offered through the 1930s. They featured an all-in-one engine block and cylinder head and a water-injected exhaust. The Model 102 engines were fairly large, with the largest having a 13-inch-diameter (330 mm) propeller and obtained the name of “The Barge Pusher”. The other style of engine, known as the classic or square block models, were divided into four main types, the Featherweight or Forty Minus, the Forty Plus, the Century and the Century Plus. The Forty Minus and Plus used identical power units, but the Plus had a larger gearbox and propeller. The Century and Century Plus used a larger 102 cc block with larger gearboxes and propellers. The engines remained in production from the late 1950s right through to the mid-1990s, and many examples of early engines are still in everyday use. The long life span is due to the good quality metals that are used. The Seagull also uses high tensile bolts and studs.

From the early 1980s a new series of British Seagull outboards was made available, called the QB series. These were designed by Queen’s University, Belfast (hence QB) and featured quieter engines, water-cooled exhaust and modified cylinders and were painted in black. These were known by some as the Irish Seagull.

In the late 1980s British Seagull introduced two further models to their range; these were called the Model 170 and the Model 125. These had engine covers or cowlings and upgraded carburetors and blocks. They both suffered from poorly designed crankshaft bushings, which caused the company many problems, and inevitably the models were never popular.

One notable feature of a British Seagull is the gearbox and propeller combination: at first glance they seem very primitive, but due to the high gearbox reduction ratio they are capable of propelling much larger boats than might be expected. The silver Century Plus model, for example, is designed to propel a displacement hull of up to 26 feet in length.

Towards the end of production a new model called the “5r” was introduced. The design of this engine was quite different from other models, as it used a conventional outboard gearbox which was from a Yamaha 4HP outboard; this was attached via an adaptor plate to a QB series power unit and was painted blue. Some of the very last engines to leave the factory had gold-painted propellers and recoil starter tops and are called “gold tops” by enthusiasts.

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FROM Scrooge: " After seeing how much fun you all have on the water together, I regret that I didn't have that much fun when I was young. I've had a change of heart, and I'm giving each of you a Lifetime Academy Membership . "

FROM Editor:  " For those of you that have stayed with us this far, many thanks, and we hope that you found this little narrative informative. Your faithful support inspires us to keep working on this phenomenal website. We know that we have a lot more to do. Ultimately, we hope that we can help you enjoy the wonder filled world of boating as much as we do. We are all waiting to see what you have to say about this webpage article. Submit any comments via email To: Comments♣EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♣" with "@"). Be sure to include this page's title in the subject line. Also, your corrections, updates, additions and suggestions are welcomed. Please submit them via email To: Editor♣EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♣" with "@"). It has been truly amazing to see what we have been able to accomplished when we've worked together. Thanks to all those that have donated their valuable time and energy, and a special THANK YOU to all that have supported this cause with their membership donations. "

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British Sea Gull Outboards

by Chuck Petersen

Few imports have made an impact on the outboard market in the U.S. with giants Mercury and OMC dominating post WWII sales, a niche market was the most any import could hope for. In the racing venue, Japanese Yamato and German Konig motors have found a home. The British Sea Gull found such a market with the sailing crowd looking for an upscale, quality brand for auxiliary or dinghy power. The primitive looking motors often are confused for antiques with their non-shrouded gas tanks and simple controls. The basic design however, was produced well into the 1990’s.

Beginning in the 1920’s, the Marsten (designer) Sea Gull was produced in Woverhampton, England by the Sunbeam Motor Company. Sea Gulls soon gained a reputation among sailing clubs for reliability and saltwater resistance. Sunbeam later sold the Marque to the Sea Gull Company, Ltd. Of Poole, Dorset. American sailors in WWII were exposed to the product, fostering a market in the U.S. during the 1950’s.

Interesting features include a side mounted carb., bicycle type butterfly throttle (no spark advance control) and a spring loaded propeller. The heavy conical shaped spring replaced the traditional shear pin found in U.S. motors. The idea was to absorb minor impact without shearing. Champion model D-16 spark plugs are standard.

The only example of the Sea Gull I have run across is sitting in my shop looking for a home. A fellow church member was cleaning out his basement prior to moving and asked if I would look it over and sell it for him. While not the high speed type of engine I specialize in, I must admit a certain fondness for this gleaming, like-new condition 1969 4 hp model. What a nice living room conversation piece. Are you reading this Dr. Bob?

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• British Seagull®

British Seagull started in 1931 producing Outboard Engines and it's still going strong today! Manufacturing and supplying spare parts for 'The best outboard motor for the world!'.

The British Seagull® Outboard

Traditionalists love them, classic cruisers find them in keeping with their classic craft, more often than not they are found in the bilge and still expected to run and be reliable when the main engine breaks down. - Surprisingly enough they usually still start and perform in true British style.

British Seagull outboards are excellent as an auxiliary engine, having plenty of torque and solid parts.

British Seagull Models

British seagull spare parts.

Spare parts are still being produced for the majority of the British Seagull Outboard range, the most popular items are the unusual spark plugs, HT Leads, Prop Springs, Water Pump Rotors, Gaskets and Piston Rings.

Manuals and Spares Books are 'must haves' for looking after and working on your outboard.

British Seagull - Find Out More

For more information on British Seagull Outboards and spare parts availability visit the British Seagull Website or phone British Seagull - Remember to always quote your engine number.

• Tel: 01491 652755
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British Seagull Shop

Shop for British Seagull spare parts online.

British Seagull

Visit the official British Seagull Website for parts and spares.

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• ID Your Outboard

Home > Forty Plus (SJP)

Forty Plus (SJP)

(Based on a 1950's & 1960's brochures) MOST POPULAR SEAGULL for: Rowboats, fishing boats, insurance motor, inflatable boats, displacement hulls to 800 lbs. and 18'. Sailboat kicker for: Bull's Eye, Lido 14, Maurauder, Enterprise, Mercury, Mobjack, Falcon, Flying Tern, Blue Jay, 420, 505, Int 14, Javelin, Pintail, Gemini, Snipe, Windjammer, Cape Dory, Albacore, Ospray, Day Sailer, Discoverer, Thistle, Redhead, Interlake, Comet, Puffin, Rebel, Bantam, Shearwater, Wayfarer.

Specifications:

• Type of Motor : Single cyclinder, 3 port, 2-stroke, water cooled
• Bore: 45mm.
• Stroke: 40mm.
• H.P. Category: 3
• Approx. R.P.M., Max: 4000
• Power Unit: Gasoline and oil mixture, pressure fed from crankcase
• Gearbox: Gear Oil (NOT Grease), No gun required for replenishment
• Exhaust System: Straight through expansion chambers. Underwater outlet.
• Reduction Gear Ratio: 10/35
• Clutch: Not Available
• Propeller: 4 blade, 9" dia. Compound Pitch
• Steering: Pivoting motor, adjustable tenstion, folding and tilting tiller, friction mounted.
• Ignition: Seagull "Instarter Magnition" system. A very high voltage spark from a flywheel magneto fires the charge in a cylinder head of exceptionally quick-starting characteristics.

MATERIALS ETC.

• Bearings: Alloy bronze. No ball or roller races. All bearings non-corrosive and rustless
• Cylinder: Fine grain, cast iron, fully jacketed and water cooled
• Cylinder Head: Seagull Alloy.
• Crankcase: Seagull Alloy.
• Crankshaft: Counterbalanced steel alloy stamping
• Connecting Rod: Seagull Alloy.
• Piston: Aluminium alloy, plated with treated rings
• Gearbox: Seagull saltwater-resisting alloy
• Water Pump: Valveless centrifugal. No glands or packing seals
• Gears: Nickel steel case-hardened and ground
• Stern Bracket: Patent Seagull detachable, clamp-on or bolt-on as required
• Fuel Tank: Gravity feed, enamelled Black, Gold or Blue (brass or steel)
• Dry Weight: 28lb.
• Standard Shaft: 16"
• Long Shaft: 22"
• Standard Shaft: 23"
• Long Shaft: 29"
• Standard Shaft: 37 1/2"
• Long Shaft: 43 1/2"
• Standard & Long Shaft: 10 1/2"
• Standard & Long Shaft: 12 1/2"
• Cruising Fuel Consumption per Gallon, 1/2-3/4 throttle: 5 3/4 hrs. approx.
• Standard: 4 pints
• Long Range: 5 1/2 pints

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British Seagull Outboard Engines

With Every Download of our Maintenance Manual, we will Make a small Donation to the RNLI.

Seagull Outboard Maintenance and Running Advice

General maintenance and running advice for your seagull outboard motor..

1  Run the engine in fresh water, ideally after every use in salt. If this is not possible, put a length of 3in (76mm) hose-pipe to the outlet hole and empty a gallon of water through the cylinder block to backflush the system.

2  Shut the fuel tap as you near your destination. It saves fuel, and ensures that the float chamber is empty and won’t leak in the boot of the car.

3  Seagull Outboards should start by the third pull. If it hasn’t, don’t keep trying. 

4  Wipe the motor with an oily rag after use. It develops a protective, oily patina.

5  If you have an older model with the piece of string, ensure there’s no one standing behind you, or they will be hit by the knot as it flies off the wheel. 

6  Half-throttle or just over will punt you along almost as fast as full throttle, but more thriftily.

7  Don’t leave a Seagull Outboard idling too long. The pump needs speed to circulate water. Rev it every 30 seconds or so till water comes out.

8  A Seagull’s ejected cooling water should never be too hot to put your hand under.

9  If you need to take the flywheel off, check the FAQ on John William’s website . It is easy to get this wrong.

10  Check the gearbox oil regularly.

11  Assume a 10:1 fuel mix on early models. Most engines can run on a lower mix. Again, the website has full details.

12  Fine-tuning the revs: moving the tiller up increases the revs, and lowering the tiller decreases them.

13  A 1930`s handbook advises time alone to learn the engine, so as to avoid embarrassment!

14  A Seagull should be wintered upright.

15  The gold-leaf transfers cannot be made now; apparently nobody can remember how! 

For more information on Seagull Outboard motor engines:

Download our guide to Seagull Outboards

British Airways Concorde aircraft sails the Hudson: See photos, video of move

British Airways iconic Concorde aircraft made its way back home to the Intrepid Museum from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on a barge Tuesday, crossing under the Brooklyn Bridge and sailing the Hudson.

Videos and pictures from the transfer presented a stunning sight as the aircraft moved along the Hudson River with the New York City skyline and Statue of Liberty in the background.

Intrepid Museum, in a news release , said that the aircraft was undergoing restoration work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

"The months-long restoration project included removal of the aircrafts paint coating, sanding, and recoating, using the same colors and markings that made Concorde a true aviation legend," the museum said in its release.

It was loaded onto a barge Wednesday and sailed up the Hudson River to Weeks Marine in Jersey City for an overnight stay, reported NorthJersey.Com , part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, before embarking towards its final destination.

On Thursday morning, around 9:30 a.m., the Concorde was lifted by a 300-foot crane and returned to Pier 86, where it was welcomed by gathered onlookers.

The Intrepid had opened up Pier 86 for the public to allow visitors to witness the Concorde's return firsthand. A livestream was also set up.

The museum said that tours of the Concorde will resume on April 4 and that visitors will be able to step inside the Concorde, "hear about its history and peer into its sophisticated flight deck."

The museum also renovating a section of Pier 86 adjacent to the Concorde's display area.

The British Airways Concorde, renowned as the fastest commercial aircraft in the world, arrived at Intrepid Museum's Pier 86 in 2003 and has been a cherished exhibit since.

See pictures from the transfer here:

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.