Review the British Seagull Outboard for Your Cravings for Fun Filled Marine Rides

The SEAGULL is a genuine British structured production. It is exclusively designed boat to be a Marine engine rather than being picked up from an industry, modified and utilized as an engine of a Marine, as often happens.

Basic Characteristics of all models of a SEAGULL engine

Tough durable structure with little space for wear and tear for years
High functionality and less damageable tendency in spite of rough use and less care
Gives continuous hours of working
Simple operable features
The engine's design is not at all complex
A minimal cost required for maintenance and that also seldom needed
The motor compromises of a single boat cylinder and is cooled with water
Material used for its manufacture is also of ideal quality
These non-ending profitable and convenient features make the British SEAGULL engine highly adored and recommended by the possessors, technicians and mechanics who love to use and repair it quickly. Therefore, you do not need to spend a hefty sum for hiring a highly expert staff for its repair. But yes, make sure to hire a professional having sound knowledge of the SEAGULL's motor.
Process of manufacturing

Every SEAGULL model in the market goes through several cross check approval measures during its process of assembly. Every motor has to excellently pass all strict functionality exams at every stage of its construction.

Remarkable featured of SEAGULL that makes its owner feel privileged

No skilled or powerful hands are necessarily required to operate SEAGULL
It has a very handy motor, that is easily portable without its detachable fuel tanks
Fix brackets for the fuel tanks are also provided
If you desire to use big tanks of capacity 45, 60 and 75 with the SEAGULL, you do not need to purchase separate brackets as the Company has designed the support space for variable tank sizes to fit in gently yet strongly for safety
The propellers of the motor are multi-bladed to enhance the thrust of the SEAGULL. They are structured to enable the vehicle a rubbery or spring like drive. Such drive has the capability of shock absorbability in case the bottom of the boat strikes against a hard object in the Sea.
The SEAGULL motor does not require lubrication with oil that is necessarily expensive. However, it should not be low in quality. Remember, it is strictly forbidden to use random fuel/oil mixing dispensers with the SEAGULL. The ratio of mixing oil and gasoline for this British engine should always remain same that is one part of oil and 10 parts of gasoline or three-four of a pint of oil and one gallon of gasoline.

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The Siren 17 Specifications

The Siren 17 is a micro-cruiser sailing boat, designed to be simple to use and maintain, and affordable. Measuring approximately 17 feet, this small boat is designed for utility rather than comfort, and can sleep two crew at a stretch. Its small size and lightweight build mean it is suitable for coasting in fairly calm weather, and is little suited for sailing far from the coastline or crossing large bodies of water.

General Features
The Siren 17 sailing yacht is constructed from fiberglass, and possesses a ballasted swing keel, a lockable cabin and, in most cases, comes with a trailer for easy transport. The Siren 17 has a small, cubby cabin, equipped with two berths. In the cabin, there is only enough headroom to assume a sitting position. The Siren 17 possesses a spacious cockpit -- longer, in fact, that many present in yachts of 23 or 24 feet -- in which a tent can be erected, should the interior space prove insufficient.

The Siren 17 Specifications

General Dimensions
The Siren 17 sailing yacht possesses a length over all (L.O.A.) of 17 feet 2 inches, and a length at waterline (LWL) of 15 feet. It possesses a beam length of 6 feet and 8 inches, and a draft from 8 inches to 4 feet 3 inches. It possesses an air draft of 23 feet.

Displacement, Ballast and Sailing Area
The Siren 17 micro-cruising yacht possesses a displacement of 750 lbs, which means the boat is easily transportable with the help of a medium-sized car. It has a ballast of 130 lbs. In addition, the sail on the Siren 17 has a maximum sail area of 145 square feet.

Price Range
The Siren 17 was designed to be affordable as well as accessible to beginners, and was available at retail for $3,000 Canadian and for $4,500 Canadian with a trailer.

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Best Tips to Convert Boats to Sail Power

A sailing boat that is converted to sail power will never sail as well as boat that was designed to sail, but sails can still add a little extra power to a human-powered vessel or provide a low-cost and green alternative to a motor. In order to convert a boat to sailing power you will need to solve four problems: selecting a hull, keeping the boat from sliding sideways, mounting the sails, and steering the sailing boat. Perform all calculations before you make any modifications to your boat.

Evaluate your hull shape. Many of your decisions will be affected by the boat that you are trying to convert. In general, boats designed for sailing are efficient displacement hulls, although some light sailboats are able to rise up on plane given the right conditions. Dedicated sailboats are usually fairly wide with fine entries — they come to a very sharp point at the water line. In addition, dedicated sailboats will have deep keels or some other way of helping the boat resist the pressure of the wind. Most human-powered boats are very narrow with fine entries and exits, like the shape of canoes and kayaks. Row boats usually have the same fine shape at the water line, although they may have more flare and width above the water. Displacement-hull power boats also have smooth shapes. Planing hulls, like the hulls of most small powerboats, are very wide in the stern in order to ride the water pressure and rise up on plane. In the bow, a planing hull will rise up most efficiently if it is wide and shallow, like a Carolina skiff or jon boat, while it will take waves and chop most readily if both the bow of the boat and the front of the hull are sharply v-shaped. In other words, both the bow and stern of a planing powerboat are designed to be effective at high power and high speed, and are very inefficient at sailing speed.

Use your hull shape to determine how large your sail should be. A canoe, kayak, or rowing boat converted to sail will be unstable, but will not need a lot of power. A planing powerboat in displacement mode will be sluggish and require larger masts and bigger sails to go as fast as displacement hulls of the same length. A displacement-hull powerboat will perform best, so look for one of these if you are acquiring a boat to convert.

Calculate the amount of square footage you will need in your sails by using your boat width and its sailing characteristics. Using conservative sail-area ratios, your sail area, in square feet, should be between 1/6 and 1/4 of your boat's weight in pounds. Remember to include the weight of cargo and crew in this calculation. So a 60-pound rowing boat with 200 pounds of captain and cargo would need 260/6 or about 42 square feet of sail — a surprisingly small sail. A 1,500 pound powerboat with 500 pounds of captain, crew, and gear would require up to 500 square feet of sail. When in doubt, use the smaller sail.

Plan for how you will recover your boat when — not if — it capsizes. You will want to be able to right the boat and bail it out or have it bail itself out. If you can't do this, then the boat is not self-rescuing and should not be used in rough water or without a chase boat. Small boats, such as canoes and rowing boats, can be righted with only the captain's weight. Large boats, such as converted powerboats, may not be able to right themselves when they go over.

Keeping the Boat from Sliding Sideways
Determine what you will use to keep the boat from moving sideways. When the sails press on the boat it will move both away from the wind and perpendicular to the face of the sail. This is fine if the wind is behind the boat, but if it is to the side or on a forward angle, then the boat will get pushed downwind. In order to keep the boat going forward, not sideways, you will need some way to resist this pressure. Deep displacement sailboats, like the tall ships, simply had deep hulls shaped to resist the water sideways while slipping through the water fore and aft. Modern sailboats use a thin flat extension from the hull to serve this function. It can either be a fixed keel attached to the boat, a centerboard that swings up and down in a box mounted inside the boat, a daggerboard that slides up and down in a box mounted inside the boat, or a leeboard mounted on the side of the hull. Of these, the easiest to add to a conversion hull is a leeboard.

Identify where to mount your board. If you are using a leeboard, it must go at the widest point in the hull. If the hull has a long straight section, as in a jon boat, then it can go anywhere near the middle of the boat. A centerboard or daggerboard can be mounted in a variety of places. Measure your boat and divide it into quarters. Place most or all of the centerboard or daggerboard in the second quarter of the hull, just forward of the mid-line.

Size your board. It should be about 6% the area of your sails. The board can be made out of plywood, with steel weights at the bottom to help sink it, and covered with fiberglass and epoxy. The board should be foil-shaped or fairly thin. Round the front or leading edge of the board and taper the rear.

Mount your daggerboard or centerboard by cutting a hole in the hull for the board, then building a box inside the hull to hold the board and keep the water out. If possible, bring the top of the box up to the height of the gunwales so as to minimize the chance of water slopping into the hull when it is swamped after a capsize. The box can be built out of anything watertight. Building a frame of sticks with sides of plywood, and attaching the whole in a bed of epoxy, is a good solid construction method. The board does not have to be located in the center of the boat, and having an off-center board makes only a trivial difference in boat performance.

Mount your leeboard by attaching it on a pivot or in a slide on the outer hull of the boat. Make sure that the board can be raised and lowered from the captain's position. You can run ropes through pulleys to the front and back of the board, which will allow you pull the board both forward and backward and thus move it up or down. Pivoting leeboards can be moved forward and aft to adjust sailing performance, and are superior if your hull allows you to mount the board that way.

Mounting the Masts
Decide how many sails you will use. Single sails are more efficient but harder to place, and put more tipping force on the boat. Multiple sails can be used to balance the boat, but require more masts and more strings to pull. For most conversions a two-sail rig such as a cat ketch is easy and convenient.

Measure your sails and identify the center point of each sail. The sails will push sideways on the boat with a force proportional to the sail area and concentrated at the middle of the sail. In order for the boat to balance, that force needs to land near the center of lateral resistance. For most boats this will be right about at the location of the board.

Use the size and force of each sail to determine where its mast should be located. A cat ketch rig gives you the opportunity to mount the main mast in a location where it can be well supported. You can then fine-tune the location of the lighter mizzen mast to ensure that the boat will balance.

Build a mast step for each mast. This must include a strong point on the hull to keep the force of the mast from driving the mast down through the boat. It must also include strong lateral resistance. For smaller boats, the old standby of a step mounted to the hull and a thwart with a hole in it is a good solution. For a larger boat, build a sturdy tabernacle for the mast. The masts do not have to be located on the center line, and can easily be built into the side of the boat, but if you use two masts try to put one on each side.

Test the rigging by attaching the standing rigging to the masts, mounting the masts on the boat, attaching the sails, and raising them. Make sure that you can perform all of these tasks easily when you launch or use your boat. Take the masts down and adjust any fittings until all works well.

Final Details
Check the layout of the boat and build or adjust seats in the proper location for sailing. In general, you will want to sit in the back of the boat on the windward side, and be able to change sides quickly. Use this seating location when determining what sort of tiller or other steering apparatus to use.

Calculate your required rudder size by taking about 2% of the sail area. If you are converting a displacement boat you may be able to simply enlarge the existing rudder, but you will probably want to use special brackets and pins to attach a rudder to the back of the boat. These brackets — called gudgeons — and pins — or pintles — can be purchased at any marine-supply shop.

As with the centerboard, make the rudder out of plywood or thin wood, and coat it with a layer of fiberglass. Round the front or leading edge and taper the back or trailing edge.

Attach a tiller to the rudder and make sure that it will reach to the captain's seat. The actual design of the tiller will depend on the size and shape of your boat, but a basic piece can be made by smoothing a 1-by-2-inch piece of wood with a plane so that it fits in your hand. If you will need to sit forward in the boat for balance, consider using a push-pull tiller, steering ropes, or even foot pedals to control the rudder.

Varnish all your woodwork. You can keep the ropes from getting tangled by making eyes — small blocks of wood with holes drilled through them — and running all the rigging through these eyes. Add cleats to tie off loose lines. Ensure that your boat has sufficient flotation and that all passengers and crew are wearing life jackets at all times. Go sailing!

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The Types of Sailing Boat Sextants

A sailing boat sextant is a device for celestial navigation designed to measure the angle between two objects, usually between a celestial body and the horizon. The purpose of this procedure, called "sighting" an object, is to determine latitude and longitude of sailing boat and thus geographic location. Various types of sextants exist. Some use the celestial bodies for reference using the vertical plane in sailing boat, while others only use terrestrial objects and measure along the horizontal plane.

Navigator Sextant
A navigator sextant is the most used type of sextant. A basic sextant consists of an eyepiece, mirrors, a movable arm and a measured scale. Some are contained within an enclosing box, aiding the device's transportability and protecting it from harm. Mariners at sea used navigator sextants as did overland navigators, such as traders for the Hudson's Bay Company.

Sounding Sextant
The sounding sextant measures positions horizontally rather than vertically and is for hydrographical surveying. The sounding sextant measures angles between terrestrial objects to fix the position at where a sounding was carried out, and thus has no need for shades. The telescope that was attached to the sounding sextant was usually a Galilean type, of two to five magnifications. Most sounding sextants were designed to be held on the right side, and had their legs located on the same side as the handle.

Surveying Sextant
The surveying sextant was used exclusively on land and combined a sextant together with a leveling stand to fix its position. Primarily used to take astronomical readings to reveal latitude, it could also turn on a horizontal plane to measure across bays, rivers and other poorly accessible geographic regions.

Box Sextant
The box sextant, also sometimes called the pocket sextant, is a hand-held sextant designed to determine the angles between two given positions. Measuring approximately 3 inches in length, versions were designed with or without a telescope. The box sextant is designed to only measure angles that are within the instrument's plane; thus, if the stations are at different levels, then the angle given will be the direct angle between them.

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The Scag on Sailing Boats

A skeg or skag on sailing boat refers to the fixed extension of the sternward keel. In some sailing boats, like kayaks, a keel may be retractable. In other boats, a skag may also refer to the motor itself. Skags are used on a variety of sailing boats, including warships, kayaks and yachts.

Steering Ability
Use of a skag improves the ability to steer the boat. The design of the skag strengthens the keel line to facilitate steering in windy conditions, especially on kayaks. The skag design focuses water flow over the hull and propellers, facilitating easier steering in turbulent waters.

Improve Stability
On smaller vessels, waves breaking against the boat can render the vessel directionally unstable. The skag provides a stabilizing force by providing some resistance to the flow of water breaking on either the starboard (right) or port (left) sides of the boat. This allows the boat to maintain a forward direction rather than constantly moving sideways.

Protect the Propeller and Shaft
On warships, the skag can deflect the blast from a torpedo downwards to protect the shaft. Use of skag on large vessels, such as tankers and aircraft carriers, protects the shaft from bending under the force of the water during high-speed turns. On all boats, the skag helps to protect the shaft, gear case and propellers from damage when crossing a stump, log, submerged rock or sandbar.

Engine
For sailing boats with external motors, the engine may be called the skag. The skag, in this case, is made of a single-unit engine and propeller. Below the propeller, a traditional skag may be part of the design to protect the propeller, but this is not always the case. The engine skag powers the propellers to drive the boat forward in the water.

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Right Clothes for Boat Sailing

Weather conditions are a major factor when choosing what to wear on a boat sailing. Calm and warm weather don't require much more than regular summer sailing wear. While cold, rainy and dangerous conditions call for more protective and specialized gear. There is a large difference in the clothing required for a sailing sport event than for a casual trip around the lake. Either way, you want to be prepared.

Foul-Weather Gear
If the weather is bad and you are still going out on the boat, then chances are you're part of sporting event, sailing is your main form of transportation or this is an emergency. On rainy, cold and violent seas, you will want a heavy, hooded jacket and pants or bib. All your outerwear should be water resistant, if not waterproof, to protect you from the cold air and wave breaks across the deck. If the water is less hazardous, and the temperature not as cold, a wind breaker or smock, which is a lightweight jacket without a hood, may be enough. Look for jackets and pants that have cinches to close up their openings and block water from penetrating your clothing.

Heat Protection
Heat and especially ultraviolet rays are a major concern on a boat because of how little cover there is and how the surrounding water amplifies UV rays. According to the World Health Organization, heavily clouded days will decrease the exposure to UV rays, but the reduction from thin clouds is negligible and may even amplify UV levels. Either way, you should wear sunscreen and have enough clothing to cover your body. White, lightweight shirts and pants will help reflect the heat and radiation.

Footwear
Heeled shoes should not be worn on board as they raise your center of gravity and make it easier to trip or fall. Most smaller boats are not designed to support the amount of pressure exerted by a high-heeled shoe. Wear shoes with non-scuff, no-slip tread that you aren't afraid to get wet. Water-socks and sandals are good for warm weather, but sailing boots are best for dangerous conditions.

Accessories
Sunglasses will help protect your eyes from the sun's glare off the water. If you are helping to sail the boat, gloves will help you handle ropes and grip slippery surface. A hat is always a safe bet. Make sure to get one with a moderate-length brim. A straw hat will do nicely, but make sure whatever hat you choose has a cinch or strap to prevent the wind from taking it.

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