cwmitch - hi there.
First of all; Welcome to the Land of all true good men
why aye man!
Since you are new to the area, whereabouts - are you in central Newcastle upon Tyne are on the outskirts like me. I live 9 mile thereabouts from Newcastle - South of the Tyne :)
In the North East vicinity; on the North side of the Tyne (i.e. North Shields) you have several timber yards there, but, more to our use you have 2-3 model shops. Two in North Shields and one in Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear. In Whitley Bay there is Allens model shop - he holds a fair stock of materials. Then the two in North Shields - Gladstones, which is basically in North Shields town centre, hold some materials and they order some in for you, they have a good range of paints etc. glues......
Phills model shops - he is, like Allens, has a dedicated modelling shop - lot of materials in store and also he sells on ebay.
If you are a bit further South like me.....try Whitburn Model shop...he caters mainly for cars and aeroplanes; but, material wise for boat building he orders in and you normally would get them in 2-3 days.
Just as a side note; there are a good few lakes around as well for sailing on. Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tynemouth Model boating lake, Saltwell Park at Gateshead, South Shields Marine Park which is under refurbishment and there is also Sunderland Roker Park and Ryhope Engines Pumping station.
Most of these lakes have clubs, not sure of the Roker one. ::)
Aye
John e
bluebird.