“Half a Century and the Century still flies!”

Written on: 05/06/2017 by secretagentmole (16 reviews written)

Long ago, in the 1920s, a small outboard motor was developed in Britain. This was a small outboard, no gearbox, no clutch, fuel tank over the cylinder, carburettor, no bearings, a paragon of simplicity. The engine was so successful it went to war, with both the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF as well! The Seagull outboard was still made in the 1990s, basically the same unit, with added bits, but still able to trace it's roots back to the 1920s. Well we got a small boat, I wanted a small outbaord, 4hp at least. Well £30 saw a non running Seagull Century. This is a 4-5hp outboard. All that was wrong was the wrong throttle cable had been fitted and the points were incorrectly set. Now these have been fixed the engine purrs and runs happily! This engine was made in 1964, it is still running happily now, how many modern outboards will still be usable in 54 years?