Snapdragon sailboats: a Thames Marine range, not a shipyard
"Snapdragon" names a model line, not a shipyard. The boats came from Thames Marine of Canvey Island, Essex — one of three closely related ranges, alongside Mirage and Invader, that the marque's own owners' association groups together as products of a single builder. That builder's story runs from a 1959 Rayleigh startup through two further relocations to a 1981 closure.
Origins and ownership
Len Wakefield and Ray Walsh formed Thames Structural Plastics in 1959 at Rayleigh, Essex. The firm moved to Southend in 1962 and launched its first boat there, a Snapdragon 23 centre-boarder, then relocated again in 1964 to Canvey Island, where it was renamed Thames Marine. The following year Thames Marine formed the Snapdragon Association, the owners' club that would later broaden into today's Snapdragon Mirage and Invaders Association as the builder's ranges grew.
Lineup and succession
The Snapdragon numbering grew quickly through the late 1960s: Thames Marine launched the 21 in June 1968 and the 29 that November — the 29 was later modified and renamed the Snapdragon 890 — alongside the 600, 670, 24, 26, and 27, launched between 1968 and 1974. The 670 also went out under another name: Thames Marine licensed it to Iles of Norbury, who marketed the same boat as the Invader. From 1975 the yard turned to a newer range, the Mirage 27, 28, 29, 30, and 37, launched through 1980, and that same year the owners' Association widened its membership to cover Mirage and Invader owners alongside Snapdragon's own.
Thames Marine ceased manufacturing in 1981. Maplin Marine took over distribution but folded within twelve months, after which Boating Scene took over production of the Mirage range and the Snapdragon 890 — the last Snapdragon model still being built under any name connected to the original yard.
Who Snapdragon is for
A Snapdragon buyer is looking at a boat from an English yard whose production closed more than four decades ago, spanning a numbering system that ran from the 21 up through the 890. Because Snapdragon, Mirage, and Invader trace back to the same builder and the same owners' association, anyone cross-shopping the wider Thames Marine lineage — not just boats badged Snapdragon — is looking at the same history and the same closed factory behind it.
