As a kid I used to go fishing with my family on a large river estuary in a heavy clinker-built rowboat, as did dozens of other families. Very nearly all of them rowed, but we usually used a Seagull outboard, except when it wouldn't start (which happened as often on the way home as on the way out). Obviously no-one was travelling more than half a mile from their starting point, because progress was stately rather than brisk with maybe one horsepower in those ultra-heavy boats (two men couldn't drag one halfway out of the water). Equally obviously, no one would ever consider going into a current. We all just recognised that the outboard was there to save the work of rowing, not to expedite progress. There is still a place for that kind of boating, in my opinion: it's fun.
Grumpy - we have to get together one day! Reading this thread, I was thinking "Seagull", too!
As I recall, part of their advertising was "Only three moving parts!"
I can remember towing more than one Victa outboard home with our Seagull (3lbs thrust, if I recall correctly) - wasn't fast, but it would move the Queen Mary, given enough time
