Saving Old Seagulls

Found this magazine advert which I hope might be of interest.

Found a couple of images from sales leaflets (sorry if the quality is not very good) - transom bracket is the main difference

Many years ago I purchased a set from a company called 'Classic Transfers' - not sure if they still do them.

I believe both engines are Britannias. The one on the right being the 'Service Model' dating from around 1945 as it has the fishtail exhaust, whilst the other is the next incarnation and was available from around April 1946 to sometime in 1949 when they redesigned the exhaust and replaced the 'wings...

The coil is sometimes referred to as a Villiers 'Twin Spark' , I've found a label on one which gives it the number 1042 x 4E. Tried one of the Villiers spares companies a couple of years back who quoted, I think, £85 +vat to rewind one. Many years ago I tried using a Seagull coil with a soldered on ...

In the early 60's there were several companies, including: Auto Products, Brit, Coventry Apex, Deflectajet, Dolphin, K.Skinner, Sea Bee, Seachief and Tidemaster, who used the JAP (John Alfred Prestwich) 34cc and 80cc air cooled industrial engine as the basis for their outboards. Although there are s...

This looks more like the Britannia rather than the Swordfish.

The Light Twin was introduced in late 1932 and had a 'fishtail' type exhaust outlet (see photo). Sometime in 1933 they changed this to the style that Bruce has on his, and in 1934 the cooling system and ignition system changed to that which the Railway Museum motor has.

I would agree with Spiro in that only motors with 'juice can' tanks had the tapped holes in the protrusions. The company also produced the 240 model which was an 8hp horizontally opposed twin where most of the parts were common with the 120, including the cylinders, and these didn't have the protrus...

I own two versions of the Ferrier Fisherman and cannot say for certain which is the oldest. Firstly, the ‘blue’ motor in original condition was built in Cornwall as it has the label riveted to the transom bracket. Of the motors I’ve seen, only the Cornish motors have this label as the ‘red’ motor (n...

Thanks for that Charles.

Whilst there were a couple of race motors at Bolt Head, Salcombe, there wasn't one of these. This one had apparently been on display for a short period at the Motor Boat Museum, Basildon.

According to a 1934 'Motor Boat' magazine, the 347cc Sharland was available in 15, 17 or 21hp, but the big question is - how can you tell them apart? I'm guessing the compression ratio could be different and/or different carburettors and maybe different gearbox ratios. Does anybody have any literatu...

I don't think the outboard is a BMB Britannia as the filler cap is not in the centre and the spark plugs look as though they are pointing slightly upwards. The other thing I notice is that the flywheel looks quite thin, so was wondering if this could be an Evinrude/Elto with battery ignition.

Rest of photos.

Thanks everyone for your input. Here are the rest of the photos I have at present - taken when first purchased, so if any specific area is wanted then I'll have to dig the motor from the back of the shed.