Does the year of manufacture make much difference?

[HeadingNorth]

Hi All

I'm still looking for an Investigator, and a few days back went to see a 1977 boat that needed a bit of work.

Aside from wear and tear, which can vary greatly between boats of the same age, is there any advantage to getting, say, a 1980s boat vs a 1970s boat? I guess I'm hinting at materials quality, modifications they made along the way etc.

Thanks

Rob

[Geoff]

Hi Rob,

Great question. It has been addressed in different ways before, but I would like to see current thoughts too.

My input - I have 2 investigators, numbers 50 and 111. I believe their respective builds were 1976 and 1983. Very confident about the date for 50, not so sure about 111. About 170 odd built?

Although there were slight changes - 2 hinges on front hatch, and different position of bilge pump exit? and different cutouts for storage under the quarter bunks, I can't see any real changes to the hull.

Rigging is different. The early one has single shrouds and diamond spars, the later one has upper and lower shrouds. The older one has more strongly attached pulpit and pushpit and lifeline stanchions.

I haven't sailed the newer one yet.

The biggest difference, and improvement that I can see from the newer one is actually the trailer. It is a better trailer to start with and in better nick, but even that is not a fair comparison as the boat and trailer have hardly been used for at least the last 10 years.

My simple answer would be no, in that the better value buy would be the one in the best cared for, in the best condition, (rigging sails etc) and maybe has better addons or fitout.

[Ozzie]

My simple answer would be no, in that the better value buy would be the one in the best cared for, in the best condition, (rigging sails etc) and maybe has better addons or fitout.

I think Geoff is 100% on the money here. My boat had been kept undercover for ten years and sailed rarely by an elderly couple when I bought it. Although it had perished tyres and no timber toerail it was perfect as far as I was concerned.

I would add possibly, that we have discussed the various locations that the boats were built in. Just like building a house from a project builder, you will get variations on the display home “ Sorry sir, the roof was an extra, didn’t we tell you that” type of thing. Just joking, but different tradies have different attitudes to their work. Earlier post mentioned surfboard makers were often recruited during the 70s to build during trailer boat boom times as they had fibreglassing skills. But, may not have been real sharp on yacht construction. Not saying investigators were built by surfies but who knows the skill sets of those who built their house or car.??

In the end, I think quality control dictates the original boat and maintenance dictates the longevity.

I have mentioned before that my moored vessel has suffered none of the hull deformation issues found on more regularly trailered boats and due to my frequent maintenance I am on my original cb and cb bolt.

Touch wood

Any of the renovated boats, like Peter’s undergoing extensive refit will of course have the clock reset so will always be a good buy.

[HeadingNorth]

thanks Geoff. very useful.
as for trailers, i wonder if anyone uses a tilt trailer. i had one for the RL24 and used it every time. i could even 'launch' the boat into the grassy paddock and take the trailer away for maintenance. (I realise this won't work for an i563 due to the keel)

I've got my first ever new car on order from japan (4x4 manual suzuki jimny - as cheap as much older second hand cars!) due to arrive in June. While it is only rated to 1300kg, a trailer manufacturer in Hastings who is familiar with the i563 told me last week will be enough to tow an Investigator - perhaps just not too heavily loaded with water etc. His view was the using the Jimny to tow such a boat would wear out the tranmission etc if used "all the time", but fine for occasional use. He said he sees a lot of tradies loading their trailers up to the limit and beyond, and after a couple of years of daily use their 3 tonne capacity utes are knackered

If the Jimny and an i563 are a match, then I'll probably try to make an extension bar to avoid dipping a brand new car in salt water.

I noticed a reply from 'Andrew' on this forum (in a post that seems to have vanished) saying that fully loaded i563s can get up to 1800kg. I'm sure that's true in some cases, but not the way I would pack my boat. Any thoughts on this much appreciated

[HeadingNorth]

My simple answer would be no, in that the better value buy would be the one in the best cared for, in the best condition, (rigging sails etc) and maybe has better addons or fitout.

I think Geoff is 100% on the money here. My boat had been kept undercover for ten years and sailed rarely by an elderly couple when I bought it. Although it had perished tyres and no timber toerail it was perfect as far as I was concerned.

I would add possibly, that we have discussed the various locations that the boats were built in. Just like building a house from a project builder, you will get variations on the display home “ Sorry sir, the roof was an extra, didn’t we tell you that” type of thing. Just joking, but different tradies have different attitudes to their work. Earlier post mentioned surfboard makers were often recruited during the 70s to build during trailer boat boom times as they had fibreglassing skills. But, may not have been real sharp on yacht construction. Not saying investigators were built by surfies but who knows the skill sets of those who built their house or car.??

In the end, I think quality control dictates the original boat and maintenance dictates the longevity.

I have mentioned before that my moored vessel has suffered none of the hull deformation issues found on more regularly trailered boats and due to my frequent maintenance I am on my original cb and cb bolt.

Touch wood

Any of the renovated boats, like Peter’s undergoing extensive refit will of course have the clock reset so will always be a good buy.

Thanks for that Ozzie. I'd like to find one like yours, with not much work to do, but the chances are not good. I'm a keen restorer of many things - cars, motorbikes, boats etc - but right now there is not a lot of time free for such work. So I'll keep looking and see what comes along

[Geoff]

Rob,

Couple of things.

I weighed mine at the local weighbridge with the gear on that I would take out, with outboard on the drawbar, 10l fuel, 30 litres of water, spare tyre etc.

Came to 1300 all up. So you could sure have more, but I could have easily trimmed 100kg by putting the items mentioned and a few more in the car.

My trailer is a tilt. I have launched with the tilt and tried retrieval with and without tilt. All times I ran the trailer back until the water was just under the centreline of the hubs - the greasecaps. This means the front of the boat and trailer is still on the dry, and I can lift the suv hatch to throw bits in. The car tyres are nowhere near the water, probably closer to 2m away.

This is lakeside ramps, so no waves, but very agricultural ramps too. Not flash ones like at the coast.

Hope that helps

[Geoff]

Hi Rob,

If you do ever decide to go the extension bar way, check out Peter Thow's trailer that he built from scratch. He has uploaded pics to his posts and you can see that one could easily be retrofitted to most trailers, even if it didn't look as integrated as his does.

[HeadingNorth]

Rob,

Couple of things.

I weighed mine at the local weighbridge with the gear on that I would take out, with outboard on the drawbar, 10l fuel, 30 litres of water, spare tyre etc.

Came to 1300 all up. So you could sure have more, but I could have easily trimmed 100kg by putting the items mentioned and a few more in the car.

My trailer is a tilt. I have launched with the tilt and tried retrieval with and without tilt. All times I ran the trailer back until the water was just under the centreline of the hubs - the greasecaps. This means the front of the boat and trailer is still on the dry, and I can lift the suv hatch to throw bits in. The car tyres are nowhere near the water, probably closer to 2m away.

This is lakeside ramps, so no waves, but very agricultural ramps too. Not flash ones like at the coast.

Hope that helps

That's music to my ears Geoff, as it suggests that I'll easily be able to make it work. For starters, many of the trailers are not tilt models, so would be a bit lighter.

The kinds of trips I'm envisaging - which I've done with the RL24 - are mostly solo (on the way to visit friends, but lots of driving alone) so there would be plenty of room in the car for outboard, water etc. I have been using an electric outboard recently and have a super-sized lithium battery (125AH) to run it, so in some cases I might have that instead of 4-stroke/2-stroke. Together they are lighter than a petrol outboard - lithium batteries are an incredible technology. It would just depend on the destination. I think in some situations a petrol outboard would be safer.

[Geoff]

i could even 'launch' the boat into the grassy paddock and take the trailer away for maintenance. (I realise this won't work for an i563 due to the keel)

I will hopefully get back to you on this soon. There is a description in the Moreton Bay Assocn notes about how to lawn launch an Investigator and I am going to give it a go. For practical reasons, not idle curiosity.

[HeadingNorth]

Hi Rob,

If you do ever decide to go the extension bar way, check out Peter Thow's trailer that he built from scratch. He has uploaded pics to his posts and you can see that one could easily be retrofitted to most trailers, even if it didn't look as integrated as his does.

Yes, Peter was kind enought to send me some info about his trailer last week, but the messages seem to have vanished. I have a friend who works in motor-body-building, so he might give me a hand to make a new one. On the other hand, Peter said the materials were about $4k so that would be for future years when I'm a bit more flush (or when I've sold a couple of my old cars, motorbikes etc). Boats come first, obviously.