Saving Old Seagulls

I'm the proud owner of THCL500J8 a 102 plus that arrived in Australia, still in its wooden case in 1970. In came out on a yacht as a spare. It was sold to a local boat shop when the yachtie needed money to go back to the UK (1972) We bought it in 74 to use on a 12 foot punt on the family oyster farms that used to transport our irrigation pump. The punt was about 3 feet deep so the very long shaft motor was perfect. it retired about 1984, and putter around the Clyde river on dads old clinker. Till the early 90's. she sat in dads shed and would get run every now and then. He was in his late 80's by then and i lived in the UK till 2000. He died in 2011, aged 100, and then the motor came to me.No one else in the family was interested. (Sad isn't it)

So i want to build a small open boat for puttering around the bay and the Brisbane river. I know it wont be a speed boat but many a pleasant day was spent with dad and grandad on the river, with the seagull providing the background "Noise" In punts and flat bottomed beasts.

I'm thinking 13-16 foot quite deep in the hull. It would be wrong to cut down the engine to a shorter length. (im shore people here would have me killed for such a thing) So what im hopping for are ideas, suggestions, what you did, or wish you did. I hope to have the old girl on the water by Australia Day 2015. Dad's 103rd birthday.

Its something for me and the kids, So if you have something in plywood or plank, in mind toss it in the ring, the more the merrier.

Andrew Seagull owner. only taken me 55 years.

As the engine will never be a racer, why not go for as near original as the engine was used by your dad. To make a clinker is a bit tricky, but if you can find an old rotten 14 - 18 ft, turn it upside down and use it as a reverse mould for glass fibre. You can strengthen the inside with more glass, add wooden knees, thwarts and decking etc to look like an old clinker and finish up with a stable safe boat for the kids and family that should last a fair time without too much maintenance that will not look out of place in any marina. I often think a lot of boats made of plywood look like plywood and not a proper boat. Just my thoughts.

Welcome and pictures please!!

I would choose a heavy hull for this engine but I don't know much about what is available in your region.

How can you be so down on plywood boats denchen ?
Easy and cheep to build and in my opinion not bad looking, this one cost about £35.00 and a days time.
Google Gavin Atkin's Boat Designs or try http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/design.htm loads of plans and free boat design software. The Barton Skiff might suite you, designed for a low powered outboard.
Have a go, they are all easy to build (stitch and glue) and you can get the kids to help

Kevin

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread. ... iron-skiff

Here is the one I built. See #s 19 and 20 in page 1 of the thread.
As you can see, I has an AC 102 short shaft on it. There is a transom cutout however. If the transom were crowned instead of cut out I'm sure it would be suitable for a long shaft. I just run my long shaft motors on it as is. Will not make much difference with a low powered motor.

It is a semi dory designed by John Gardner, it can be built in plywood or solid lumber. Mine was white pine on English Oak.
Bronze fastened. 7/8 pine plank bottom, 1/2" pine plank.
For a clinker build the dory lap is much easier to do than the rolling bevels on a regular clinker build. John Gardner claims its an approximately 40 hr build in plywood for an experienced, well organized builder. Mine took about 2 1/2 to 3 times that long.

The plans are # 28, p.266 in John Gardner's "Dory Book "

Have a look at some of Mark Bowdidge’s designs your Seagull would push most of them don’t expect more
than 4 knots, you can use a height adjuster to set the height of the motor. The Mushulu 12 & 14 may suit
your needs.

http://www.bowdidgemarinedesigns.com/

Have you joined the OZ Seagull Group there’s quite a few members in Qld.

John