Woodworking Co. produced Seagull and Seamew yachts. The site seeks to discover

and make a register of all surviving examples of these fascinating craft  which  were

in many ways years ahead of their time, and which I circulate to other owners

Contact me  at   Dewhirste@supanet.com  or  e.Dewhirst@yahoo.com   

Tel  01254 830678   or 07711 835870

Other groups

 http://groups.yahoo.com/Bell_Seagull_and_Seamew

 http://www.trail-sail.org.uk

http://www.dinghycruising.org.uk       

sailing cruiser suitable for coastal, estuary and  inland  water  cruising  that  could  be

supplied in kit form for home completion by anyone  with  reasonable  woodworking

ability.  He  used  the same 4 planks a side form of construction that  he had  used  for

the successful 16ft Osprey racing dinghy.. The result was the Seagull which is 18ft 6in

in length,  6ft 9in   beam and 1ft 5 in draft with the keel up  and 3ft 8in  with  it down. 

There are 2 berths in the cabin with room for 2 children to be  accommodated under a

boom tent in the cockpit. (See specification pages for details of both Gull and Mew).

The first boat was launched in  1956 and proved  to be  both fast  and  seaworthy and

kits and completed boats sold in numbers.

Following the success of the Seagull, Bells then commissioned Proctor to design

a larger sailing cruiser to cater for the demand for a boat with more facilities  for

families. The  result  was the Seamew which  is of  the same construction as  the

Seagull but at 22ft in length she could be fitted with a small inboard engine, 4 or

5 berths and  a  marine  toilet.    The first boat was  launched  in 1962  and  again

proved to be fast and seaworthy. She went into production in 1963, again  selling

in numbers.

There was a thriving Bell Seagull and Seamew Association but due to competition

from,  and  the  availability of  larger  fibreglass cruisers  in  the 1970s the numbers

fell and  the association  was wound up in 1983   through lack of interest. Now it is

just  one man  banging his  drum   to try to rouse and keep interest in keeping these

grand  little cruisers sailing.

My own involvement with the Seagull began in 1980 when looking for something a

bit  bigger  than  my 14ft Tarpon camping/cruising dinghy. After  looking at several

other small yachts I came upon Seagull no 145. She had been badly neglected in the

70s but the current owner had had her fitted with new decks and coach roof by a boat 

builder, then decided to sell. She was sat on a 4 wheel trailer and  the  hull  had been

given a coat of paint, but there was a lot of work to do. I took one look at her lines

and decided that she was the boat for me and after a bit of haggling over the price she

was mine.

My first task was to remove a rusty old Coventry Victor inboard engine and replace

the bulkhead into the cabin that had  been  cut  away to  accommodate  it, but  which

allowed all the water getting into the cockpit to have a free run through the cabin. The

cockpit locker sides and most of the lids needed replacing and while I was at it I built

a  'bridge deck' locker against the new cabin bulkhead ...

Over the years I have refurbished the keel which now gets a regular overhaul, re built

the lower part of the keel case and scarphed in a new section of deadwood, re fitted

the cockpit and made it self draining with 3in. coamings for the locker lids and built a

pick a back trailer to my own design.

At the same time I have been cruising twice  a year (mostly single handed)  and  have

now logged in excess of 20,000  miles, sailing most of the South coast with 2 trips to

Scilly,.   All the West coast from Lands End to Cape Wrath, cruising the Inner Hebrides

many  times with  5 crossings of the Minch have sailed all the East coast of the Outer

Hebrides from Barra to Stornoway . I have trailed to the Moray Firth twice, sailing to

Orkney each time. Further south I have been across to the I.o.M about 15 times and

across to Ireland 5, sailing all  the East  coast and the  South coast as  far  as  Kinsale.

 During  that time  I have met s ome pretty  rough conditions  but never doubted the

seakeeping qualities of my little Seagull.

Meanwhile I had only ever seen 2 Seagulls and 2 Seamews afloat and a few laid

up, most in varying degrees of dilapidation, which led me to decide to try to find

out how many of the 400 or so that were built are actually surviving. In the autumn

of 2000 I wrote to the boating magazines asking for a letter to be published in which

I invited Gull and Mew owners to contact me, the result was that I was able to compile

a list of the owners of 18 Gulls and 12 Mews. Since then I have produced an

annual newsletter which I have sent to all the owners on my list, some of whom have