Indeed the boats next to the west pier had external mounted engines, if I remember correctly, I was one of the few who did not drop an engine into the lake when having to remove it to replace the shearing pin.
I used to work on the West pier amusements in the holidays on the kids rides, massive bouncy castle thing and the motor boats. The "pond" used to get drained at the start of the season, bottom full of sludge, found a huge whole stinky rotting cod that somebody decide to dump in there, plus...