THERE are plenty of full-size boats you could buy for the price of a rare steam-powered model due to be sold at auction today.

Somewhere between £18,000 and £22,000 is expected for the 50 inch model of the Branksome in the The Gentleman’s Library Sale being held by Bonhams at Knightsbridge, London.

It is radio controlledands was built by Keith Townsend of Annan, Fife, in 1992 to a scale of 1:12.

Mr Townsend built several copies of this model, the first commissioned for the new Windermere Steamboat Museum in 1977.

The original steam launch Branksome was built for Mrs Edina Howarth, of Langdale Chase, by Brockbank of Windermere and launched as the Lilyin in 1896.

It was one of the most luxuriously appointed steam launches on the lake and cost almost four times that of most similar sized vessels.

It was kept in a specially built boathouse.

Mrs Howarth kept the steam launch until 1919 and it then passed to the Cowburn family before being sold to George Pattinson, the founder of the Windermere Steamboat Museum around 1962.

The launch was fully restored and to carried the Duke of Edinburgh in 1966 and Prince Charles in 1977.

Branksome is expected to feature at the new Windermere Jetty Museum, which is due to open later this year.