Lesro Rapier

Many years ago I was given (most of) a damaged Lesro Rapier.

Recently whilst waiting for some aliphatic glue to dry on my new Remora build, I pulled this sorry looking wreck out from under the bench and  I decided to restore it. 

On reflection, I wish I had just waited for the glue to dry on my Remora as everything I look at seems a lot worse than it did the time before - and this has largely continued to be the case every time I look at it again!

The superstructure was badly twisted and warped, so my Tamiya razor saw was employed to cut it away so I could use the original parts as a template to cut a new pair.

Looking along the boat I could see that one side was bent inwards towards the rear,  so I carefully removed the deck in this area and cut away the stringers so I could clamp the side against a straight length of hardwood and then made and fitted new stringers and left it overnight to dry.

The two large bulkheads had large holes roughly torn out of them, and the rearmost one of these had the top missing altogether.  I cut straight edges around the ripped-out sections with my razor saw and inserted fresh plywood to build them back up to where I think they should be.

The prop shaft was not running straight or inline with the keel. The shaft was removed after having to cut off the electric motor's coupling as the retaining screw that holds it on the shaft had been sheared off.  Plenty of body filler was holding the shaft in place and the motor was held down with a strip of metal with a wood screw on each end.  At least the motor was easy to remove!

I have re-fitted the two sections of deck over the rebuilt side (which has fortunately dried dead straight!) and I have only spent a few hours (so far) scraping away some of the sticky dark brown semi-dried shellac that had been poured over most of the inside - so I can see what is underneath.

After scraping away the layers of paint on the outside of the hull to expose some wood I fitted new 1/8 x 1/4" spray rails and deck edging.

The rudder shaft hole is not drilled either upright or in the middle of the keel, so I need to plug this and re-drill a suitable hole to fit the new rudder that I have bought to fit.

I have been looking for any pictures I can find of Rapier models so I can get some idea of what it should look like so I know how to cut the tops of the two repaired main bulkheads, what shape to make the cabin tops and to see what the rear (missing) cabin panels would look like.

Sadly I have no plans to refer to, and the last time I saw a Rapier was when I was a member of the Bath Model Boat Club circa 1969 (ish) ..... and that was a long time ago!

If anyone has a set of Rapier plans they would like to sell or copy for me it would help me avoid having to built parts of the boat as a freelance model as my preference is to rebuild it fully to its original shape as a classic that I can enjoy sailing with my other classic model boats from this same sort of time period.

I would also consider buying a good (or at least complete) secondhand Rapier model so I had something to refer to whilst I complete this restoration.

Please contact me if anyone has a set of plans or a even complete Rapier model boat to sell.