TOPIC:

Hi all
I have recently finished my summer project namely albi 1731 (no name yet) which i acquired from e bay at the princely sum of 250 quid, a right bargain i thought as all i had to do was buy a goose neck and then many hours of sanding and painting.
I think the old girl is a mk11 because she has no stern deck and about 1965ish any info on the age of this dinghy would be very much appreciated, also i would like to put a classic British seagull on her but am not sure if i should get a long or short shaft, any thoughts?

Happy sailing..............

With regard to the Seagull outboard I would say DONT! - buy a nice reliable modern one. My memory of Seagulls was of hours bent over them pulling the starter cord, fiddling & swearing and ending up rowing or getting a tow fdrom a friendly psser-by

Go for the Seagull - They start well provided they have fresh fuel and they are indestructable. The problem people have with starting them is they leave fuel in them, the rich 2 stroke mix goes off over time. I pulled mine out the shed a few weeks ago wiped off 4 years of dust put in fresh fuel primed the carb and third pull she roared into life. Mix the fuel well before putting it in the tank. Look at the saving old seagulls web site for loads of tips and info.
A short shaft 40 plus should be perfect, later model used 25:1 mix breaker less ignition. Clutch drive makes for less stress than the direct drive models £60 on E bay should get you a good example. Make sure you see pics of it running and water is coming out of the back starbard side of the cyl block
Regards
Richard

Thanks for your thoughts guys,i think i will still go for the seagull as i think it would look nice on the dinghy. I know about old fuel gumming up the jets,this was discovered on my mariner 40 after lots of huffing and puffing. Even after draining the fuel or letting the engine burn out there is still a residue of the oil/fuel mix in the float bowl. after a time this will gum up and when fresh fuel is added this gum detaches and get drawn into the jets.

I'm a spanner and hammer kind of chap and a seagull i can see, one of those modern engines with their small black boxes of wizardry with wires attached is all above me...

thanks

1731 is listed as a Weathermark built boat dating back to 1965. At one time it was called "Macha".

There's not much more I can do, so I hope this helps!

Norman

Thank you Norman that is very interesting, maybe i might call her "Macha" again. I was considering calling her "Bottoms up" after our first outing on Bewl Water on Saturday.Still a good dunking showed that a lot of work has to be done to the buoyancy(used very loosely) tanks, I cant see that i could fit buoyancy bags through the inspection hatches under the benches so am trying to source some closed cell foam peanuts to pack in there.

Thanks for the information.