It seams to be a « beast » of à boat

The original forward deck hatch that I made had a large air scoop shape, but it looked too aggressive, so I sliced it in half.
The lower half was given a 1.5mm flat plywood top to become the new front hatch cover, and the shaped upper half was added to the front cabin roof to become a streamlined air intake for the (imaginary) cabin air con system .

The forward deck hatch makes an ideal “weight box” as well as a foam filled buoyancy chamber

Pictured last week just before the Southport “bring and buy” with the recent forward deck hatch added to the fore deck to make it easy to check and see what is going on inside that big void space !

Hi Steve,
The Rapier is a lot faster than I thought it would be - it came as a very pleasant surprise!
I had a few small problems to sort-out, but overall this boat has been a joy to own and run since I restored it and I look forward to the weather warming-up a little bit so that I can get it back on the water at the Southport club.
The spray rails make the boat look much more aggressive and it absolutely "rails" when cornering at high speed so overall I am very pleased with it and I am looking forward to maintaining it and keeping it looking tidy for the future.

That is what I want for my birthday next week, then I wake up lol !!! She is a beauty, any footage of how she runs on the wet stuff ?

Now that is the way to do a restore, great job. I'm about to put spray/chine rails on my Sea Queen, this example of them is going to help a lot in it's end result. As for this being a Rapier, already going green and tearing off my t shirt as I type !!!

Nice work Bob looking great.

JB

Hi Kevin - good to hear that you are also restoring a Rapier - they did not sell as well as some of the other LesRo model kits, and unlike some of the others - they have never been re-kitted again either!
My model boat restoration work is more craft than precision - at 72 I no longer spend weeks seeking perfection in every detail, I prefer to make good solid strong repairs that work and return the boat to the water so I can enjoy running it.
This suites restoring and building classic model power boats, but it may not be the best approach if I were building highly detailed warship models etc - something that my eyesight and available time does not encourage in any case.
I could not find any triangular section obechie to use for my strakes, so made a simple little jig to allow me to split some square section obechie on my bandsaw.
This worked well and (with some practice) gave me no waste so I was able to get two triangular strips out of every square strip that I fed into the machine.
Using this method I made and then fitted strakes to my first Rapier restoration and liked the look of them enough to cut some more and fit them to this second Raper, a Javelin and two Swordsman hulls (so far!).

Hi your work looks really good. I am impressed with how you have fitted the spray rails on the bottom of the hull. Could you let me know how you shaped them and fitted them. I am also restoring the same model.

Regards
Kevin.

The "new" Rapier that I won on eB*y needed some work - even though it was complete (missing no main parts) and is currently making slow progress in my over-crowded workshop.
The boat had a tiny sized motor inside and a fixed rudder so it had probably been used as a slow pond boat.🤔
Not much glue - but plenty of brass nails were used to put this LesRo kit together and a gap between the end of the lower skin and the transom suggests that it had not been used too often as this would have caused a major leak that would have needed some urgent attention!.
The cabin sides were smashed during delivery so the boat will take a fair bit of time to restore (and make watertight) and it gives me the opportunity to make some minor styling changes as I remake and replace the damaged and broken parts.
I made new deck edge and chine rails and cut some strakes and fitted a new M5 prop shaft as I tidied up the hull and plugged the holes that were left after I changed the position of the shaft, rudder and water pick-up pipe.
The front cabin sides and screen were replaced with new wood and the shape changed slightly.
The wheel house sides were repaired and a new "mask" type front (and rear) screen was made along with a new extended three piece roof (with lift-out centre section) to replace the piece of bent nailed-on 1.5mm ply it came with!
I am currently making a new front cabin roof to fit the new shape and hope to come up with a suitable rear cabin design when I cut away and replace the damaged sides.

Soon after completing my Rapier restoration, another used example (more or less complete, but in need of some work) appeared for sale on eB*y and it had absolutely no interest.
I put in an offer and won it, so I became the "temporary custodian" of another fairly rare LesRo Rapier.
The LesRo Javelin has exactly the same hull as the Rapier, but it had an off-shore racer type super-structure that proved to be much more popular than the wheelhouse cabined Rapier.
The Javelin was also re-kitted at a later date and was re-named as The Streaker and it continued to sell well.
The Rapier was never re-kitted and so the few that were sold (mostly in the 1970's and 80's) remain the only ones in existence.

Like the idea of tools on board well thought out.
Rick

When the Rapier first came out I thought it was a strange looking craft that I was not too fond of, but 50 years later with so few being sold (and even less surviving), I am pleased that I rescued it and it has attracted a lot of favourable comments since it has been seen as a regular performer on our club lake.

A suitable brushless motor was fitted on a water-cooled alloy mount with a 120A water cooled ESC that was carefully aligned with the original 2BA prop shaft (fitted with new M5 phosphor bronze bearings and a 5mm stainless inner shaft) and joined with a Powerflex coupling.
A 5600Mah 2 cell Lipo was used to power the model and the performance exceeded all my expectations.
This classic model has a fair turn of speed - far better than I remember them running with the usual mix of .40 and .61 size glow engines back in the late 1960's- early 1970's!

The Rapier was twisted and needed the superstructure and decking to be removed to straighten it.
New cabin sides were cut from 4mm birch ply, new 1.5mm deck skins fitted to hold the hull in its new straightened position, and the various ragged holes that had been broken through the bulkheads were given square edges and filled with fresh 4mm inserts and sanded flat.
Deck edging and chine rails were made from 1/4 x 1/8" obechie and I made a jig to cut my own triangular 36" long strakes from square section obechie as it is no longer possible to buy hardwood strip in triangular sections
New cabin tops were made and whatever "lock-down" paint was in the house at the times used to colour it.

We have been spending a lot more time in our caravan recently taking advantage of the unusually good weather that the north west is currently enjoying- this gives me more time on the Southport lake but no time in my workshop (shed) at home!
The trim tabs were secured onto the stern of Rapier1 by a pair of stainless steel cap head bolts on each side, so these remain fitted but with no current function.
Maybe I could find some pictures of some bathing platforms and design something suitable to fit Rapier1 and secure it using these same caphead bolts?
That could look good and be easily removable as I secured the matching stainless nuts inside the transom when I fitted the trim tabs.🤞

**I have reposted this as it was previously assigned to a second entity (bobs2) that I seem to have acquired on this site!

I am spending a lot more time in our caravan recently taking advantage of the unusually good weather that the north west is currently enjoying- this gives me more time on the Southport lake but no time in my workshop (shed) at home!
The trim tabs were secured onto the stern of Rapier1 by a pair of stainless steel cap head bolts on each side, so these remain fitted but with no current function.
Maybe I could find some pictures of some bathing platforms and design something suitable to fit Rapier1 and secure it using these same caphead bolts?
That could look good and be easily removable as I secured the matching stainless nuts inside the transom when I fitted the trim tabs.🤞

Written by zooma not sure how it has been attributed to bobs2 - have I gained a fake second name?

What a pity I didn't have the time on Sunday to come and have a good look at your Rapier. I saw it on the pond but have to admit my mind was elsewhere. (It so often is these days !) 😉