Saving Old Seagulls

Hi as never seen another sea gull run , how fast should they go ?
I used mine on a canal ( a 1.5hp ) plus three adults on a 13ft rib dinghy was going about 4mph
Is this average speed for the hp?
Also when fixed to the back of the boat the propellor is about 4 inches under the water is this ok
Or do I need a long shaft ?
Thanks mark

They are an old design that never changed much over the years, just a good workhorse motor, even though some do have the urge to race them and its been said that you can even exceed the local river speed limit, highly modified motors of course.
There should be some info on the depth settings, maybe on the beginners guide, I have found that as long as you don't get too big a rooster tail at full bore then it's fine.
Don't worry about HP too much, it was not always that reliable when it come to Seagull, my FVP will out run all my other motors, even my 102.

I like it when there is a speed limit sign up of 6 knots, I wish, mine will only do 4 on a 12' dinghy

I'd think 4 mph in a 13 ft Rib with 3 person on board and only 1.5 hp pushing it is pretty good.

If you want more speed then you need a more powerful engine.

You should be able to get a 13 ft RIB up to about 30 mph with 40 hp pushing it !

Vic wrote:I'd think 4 mph in a 13 ft Rib with 3 person on board and only 1.5 hp pushing it is pretty good.

If you want more speed then you need a more powerful engine.

You should be able to get a 13 ft RIB up to about 30 mph with 40 hp pushing it !

Lol 4 mph suits me fine , i only use the gull
On the canal its perfect for that , just dident
know the speed of them

A 13' rib is probably about 11' waterline length. That gives you a hull speed of about 4.3 knots or about 5 MPH.

You cant go faster than the hull speed without planing. To get on the plane the hull must bodily lift in the water and climb over the bow wave which takes lots of power.

Also Seagull powerheads, gearboxes and propellers are NOT optimised to deliver max power at higher speeds.

I would bet that a modern small outboard of similar horsepower would have even worse performance on a heavily loaded small boat as they tend to be optimised for lightly loaded boats at higher speeds and don't have the raw thrust to do well if heavily loaded..

I love the seagulls but some of these modern small motors are pretty amazing with there power output,