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Wanted: Seagull Silver Century Outboard


Kiteroa

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It’s up there with the RedBull trolley derby, but without the marketing hype and the people are more interesting.

 

We’ve been involved with the race for a little while now. My mate and I were going to do the race in 2011, but a couple of weeks before the race we had our seagull boat out at Kawau for some testing. On the way home it was rough and we were towing it behind the yacht. The bow fitting pulled out and the whole shooting match sank! Taking our best motor to the bottom with it.

 

So last year my partner decided that she’d shoot a film festival quality documentary on the race and a selection of the competitors. She’s a reasonably talented film maker. So for the race just gone, we organised a film crew and a boat with a camera & gyro stabilisation rig. Unfortunately it’s very hard to get funding for any NZ doco that isn’t about Maori history & their repression, so we’re funding it ourselves. Which is a bit of a challenge financially. We’ve said $15k for the whole film, which would almost be the catering budget on a normal production!

 

We shot last year’s race as a technical rehearsal to fully understand what we were dealing with. From there we decided that the guys doing it were quality characters and interesting enough to build a story around. So we drove all over the country visiting and filming these old seadogs in their boat sheds and put together a 10min trailer for our film. Our trailer won a spot on a NZ film forum and we were able to show it to some high rolling NZ film industry people. They loved the project but we don’t meet any funding criteria. We don’t have any Maoris, repression, NZ history, cooking or house renovating…. But they did give us some good advice. They told us we needed to follow a new team taking on these old seadogs. So a couple of us guys at Southern Spars decided to throw together a boat and start developing. That’s how we’ve come to have Paris Hilton….. Looks great from a distance, but as you get closer she’s not quite the same both sides. But she is great fun to ride, and all the guys have a lot of fun with her. Paris the 2nd will be quality though.

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That’s how we’ve come to have Paris Hilton….. Looks great from a distance, but as you get closer she’s not quite the same both sides. But she is great fun to ride,

 

Excellent :lol:

:thumbup: +1 what a priceless quote!

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Hey WT get onto chris @ Chilly dog racing,hes a legend @ seagull racing, :thumbup:

 

I'm in close collaboration with team chilly dog... Chris is one of the main characters in our film also.

 

His engines are really good. I'm trying to match his setup by getting my hands on a couple of SC engines :-)

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In some classes there’s a minimum crew weight, so guys carry a spare engine as a corrector weight. It’s a good insurance policy if you’ve got weight to burn. At some point you’re going to hit something and damage a prop or shear a drive shaft etc. So really nice to have a 2nd motor to stick on the back while you’re fixing the other one!

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More seagull racing. Last years Waikato race:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9lolVHH ... e=youtu.be

 

Managed to sell one of my 102 engines for $250 last night. Limiting the financial damage to $150 of dead loss from what I paid for it!

 

Also came across two super rare high compression heads in some old seadogs garage out by Otara.

 

Then got all keen and built a seagull rack with built in drip tray. Which is essential given that any liquid you put into a seagull is going to end up on the floor at some point.

20131207_082250d.jpg

20131207_201252s.jpg

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He he, those last comments from both of you are priceless. the only observation is given ogres age, he has earned the right to be eccentric? what's your excuse WT? :lol:

 

I remember looking at a house for sale in Hatfields beach around a year ago and there were around 6 Seagull outboards in the garage. I pondered buying the house provided the Seagulls came with it!

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He he, those last comments from both of you are priceless. the only observation is given ogres age, he has earned the right to be eccentric? what's your excuse WT? :lol:

 

I'm moderate in comparison to some of the other guys racing! So are we going to see you on the river this year John? You can take Paris down for the ride if you like. Could probably even find an engine for you... What do you say? You'll need to find a crew though. That bushman chap sounds like a starter......?

 

Got out for some more secret testing the other day. We're looking slippery....

 

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