In 2020 a fellow member of the Leeds & Bradford Model Boat Club, Ernest Birch, gave me a model of a Thames Bawley he had been making. He had tried sailing it a few times but each time it had capsized. In addition to the boat he also gave me a number of model boat magazines about Thames Bawleys, plus plans and other articles.

This blog is all about the work I have done to get the boat into reasonable sailing condition.

Unfortunately I have no photos of the boat prior to my taking it apart. I decided to scrap all the sails, mast, rigging, decking, bulkheads, internal blockings and lead keelson. It took quite a time to grind out all the superfluous fibreglass resin (about 1.5lbs in all !).

The hull was stripped, the lead keelson removed and the whole interior cleaned out. Any holes in the hull were stopped with polyester resin at that stage, and the surfaces sanded and smoothed ready for painting.

In the attached photos the lead keelson is still in place.