My company - Ailsa Craig - made petrol, paraffin and diesel engines in this range and I still endeavour to keep my old engines running when owners contact me by advising on spares and technical matters.

Vintage Marine Engine Club (Kevin Whittle - email vintagemarine@tiscali.co.uk) actively keeps obsolete engines running, and there are some classic car enthusiast firms who can help with components, too numerous to mention here. These old marine engines were built for reliability (there are no garages at sea! ).

From the trade angle, a one-off parts supply is naturally more expensive and so can carry an additional "search and find" factor. It is not only the time sourcing but the manufacture from scratch of a component. This is where advice comes in, knowing when a current component can be modified economically and how to salvage an original component - sometimes surprisingly, considering the state of some of them.

Yours faithfully, Dr Robert A Kisch Jersey, Channel Islands