Original Investigator Moulds for Sale

[Flip]

The investigator moulds are on gumtree at Sandgate NSW along with Contessa moulds just thought I would point it out

[Yara50]

Yes it is sad that it is not economical to make new boats in Australia any more. Note that he also has a hull and deck and other parts to make a new boat for sale, so that could be interesting to someone.

If you want to go up to 30 ft long, the moulds to make a new Clansman 30 are also on the market.

[Raya]

I notice that the moulds, hull and deck are still up for sale. There is a set of sails included in the deal. It would be interesting to see what sail number was on the main. Below is some of the text from the advertisement.

INVESTIGATOR TRAILABLE YACHT MOULDS COMES WITH A NEW HULL AND DECK, MAST AND SAILS.
MY WORKSHOP HAS BEEN SOLD AND THESE MOULDS AND THE HULL AND DECK HAVE TO GO.
RELUCTANT SALE, OWNER RETIRING.
GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE RIGHT PERSON.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE RING ME ON 049 0003846

[Ozzie]

It's hard to estimate what the cost would be of materials alone simply to glass up a mould the size of an investigator . Anybody know? I had a mould for a large canoe for years and tried to get someone who may have been interested in laying it up for me if I paid for two lots of material and helped them make one for me and one for themselves. Everyone said it was not worth the effort with the range and low cost of poly canoes available. Which is what I eventually bought.

I lent my brother in law my old fibreglass kayak for a scout canoeing day he attended a few years back and he said he was the only one there with FG, everyone else had poly. When I eventually tried selling my unused mould I had no takers so gave it to a friend as a play boat for her kids' sandpit.

Maybe one day, if TSs ever make a comeback, they will be poly. Stranger things have happened.

Edit:spelling

[Yara50]

Buying the hull, deck, mast and sails would be great way to upgrade if you have an existing boat with old and battered gear and or hull. I hope someone here saves those parts. The molds are a lost cause unfortunately.

[Raya]

I spoke to seller (John) to ask if he would consider selling the new sails separately. He wasn’t willing to separate the items but he did tell me some of the history behind the moulds and the sale.

The moulds are original and he said that they have been used to manufacture all the Investigators. At one time, one of the moulds was destroyed in a fire but was replaced so that construction could continue. (I wonder if this was when the front hatch was redesigned.) He said that he had all the moulds including those for the hatches.

He obtained the moulds from Bob Barnard, who was the principal of Investigator Yachts, after Bob’s company folded in 1989. John told me that the main reason that Bob Barnard closed his company was that his wife died and he lost his motivation for running the company. John said that Bob Barnard is still alive and lives in a nursing home. His company built other designs besides the Investigator. The moulds for the Contessa and Clansman 30 (designed and built by Bruce Fairliee) are also up for sale.

Regarding the Investigator moulds, John had intended to use the final hull and deck pieces to build a boat to use as a display, but didn’t get around to it. He said that to build a complete boat would now cost around $25k to $30k. He said that the time to fabricate the hull and deck using the moulds was only eight hours.

John was selling up because the council rezoned the land where his business was situated and he had to move out. He said that it was no longer economical to produce boats in Australia and decided to retire. I did ask if the new sails had a sail number on them. They hadn’t. I also asked if he knew any of the history of the WA Investigators but he wasn’t able to help here.

Talking to John filled in a bit of the Investigator story. It would be good if someone in the Newcastle area could locate Bob Barnard and document his recollections of our favourite craft before that part of the history is lost for good.

[Flip]

Very interesteing as I have owned a Contessa fantastic yacht for many years I find the investigator has a similar charm very forgiving in rough weather iofact the two yachts raced against each other for many years under handicap it's a shame to see the era coming to an end all things change flip

[Ozzie]

I did a bit of investigator work on bob Barnard on the net

http://www.sonatayacht.com/history.htm

He is mentioned in this article among general tales of woe on the decline of the trailer sailer industry. I dont suppose anyone knows his whereabouts. I'm sure he'd be an interesting person to chat with. Nursing homes are full of people with interesting histories.

Make plenty of history yourself before you get to one.

[Mark]

There you go my Linkage back to I563!!

Cheers Mark
Former 563 owner current Sonata 7 owner

[no way]

Just read the article on the sonata history. A few inaccuracies there for sure