INVESTIGATOR 563

I've managed to glean a few interestings facts about the Investigators that were built in West Australia.

They were being built in WA around 1977.
They were of the one hinge forward hatch design.
They were manufactured by a company called Wesyacht, located in Perth.
A shorter mast was fitted.
WA Investigators weren't fitted with a drop down centre-board.

It would be good if our WA owners could verify or add to the list of differences. I know of four WA boats, but there are probably more than that.

Here is picture of "Spirit of Christie" when Richard Tolley owned it. You can see that there is no provision for the centreboard rope. Richard said that there was no sign of a centreboard ever having been fitted to the boat.

This may explain the boat that was on gumtree last year that didn’t have the fixed keel centerboard setup you would see on a normal investigator. Instead it had a flat bottom and a lift daggerboard coming up through into the cabin.

Found the thread about it here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=783

Found this one having a sniff around - same setup but may be a different boat located in SA.
http://moana.australialisted.com/5169/b ... 10579.html

Greg,

Well spotted.

I'd say it is the same Investigator. The first one was advertised in South Australia. I had a copy of that same photo of the drop keel already, so my photo most likely came from that earlier advertisement.

I'm not certain that it is a WA boat as you can still see the pulley and cleat from the original keel haul line still on the bulkhead on the photo from your link. Maybe it is just a modified boat.