I've Got The Power! (All 2HP of it!)

In my price range most, if not all of the boats available come without an engine. That's understandable because the engine can be worth as much as the boat itself. So the canny seller will split them and sell the boat separately, as a slightly down at heel boat and engine will not command the price you can get selling them individually.

To that end, I've been searching for motive power so should I find an engineless gem, I can snap it up and not worry about how I'm going to move it.

And last month I found this on eBay:

£34 and it was mine. A cursory look over it and its in good condition overall, with very little corrosion. It turns over easily by hand, so no worries about it being seized.

There are issues, such as the missing petrol cap vent plug, missing spark plug cap, the dodgy throttle cable and missing throttle slide spring and also a leaking gearbox prop shaft seal. But hey, it was made in 1962 (its as old as me!) so I shouldn't complain. That's a lot of history!

But the condition of it means its worth adding the few bits to get it going again. The good thing with seagulls is that most parts are cheap. I'm quite looking forward to working on it and it means for once I get to use the imperial spanners and sockets I've very rarely if ever used in my socket set.

On the plus side the prop is in great shape as are the drive shaft and the exhaust shaft. The tank is ok but could do with a respray.

Its certainly a lot cheaper than a Japanese engine and once you get them fettled, Seagulls can be just as reliable.

Obviously Christmas means I don't have money for the parts right now, but in a month or so I'll start looking to get the bits to make it work. Hopefully I can keep the total cost of the engine and parts low.

I'll document the fix-up on video and have a breakdown of the cost as I go along.

But at least its one step towards boat ownership.