Newbie Questions

[Zephr]

Hi all,

I'm new to sailing have always been interested never had the time, have just bought an investigator and have a tonne of questions, if anyone can answer them would be extremely grateful.

1) My HIN is meant to contain a manufacture year ie. last 3 digits should be something like E77 translating to May 1977, however mine ends in EZ7 I assume this means it was built in 1977?

2) How do I find my boat number, I have the sails in a bag however I read a post here where someone here looked at the boat and said there was no sail number?

3) The engine mount on all of these boats seems to be in an arkward position when I tested it the steering on the outboard is hindered by the safety rail between you and it, am I missing something?

What do you guys use to clean your metal parts of the boat that have slight rust?

What is the best way to remove rust from galvanised trailer?

That will do for now I'll post more later

Cheers,

Brett
Zephyr

[Greg]

Don't know about the boat numbers but i can shed some light on the rust and the outboard problems.

My trailer is the original from 1977 and all asides the back rail i only just replaced its all oringinal due to a good soaking with fish oil every few months. Its horrible stuff but it will stop the rust and its a more the better solution. Once the oil sets i normally go over it with a coat of cold gal paint just so it doesn't look like hell, you could really use any paint or not bother at all.

With your outboard, as far as i can tell there was not continual standard to the pull pit so some are fully enclosed (like mine) and others are open or have a gap for the outboard etc. When i bought my boat it had been on a mooring for a few years and the outboard bracket had almost rusted off. I soon found that an "Off the shelf" mount would not work and ended up getting one modified. See here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/lawanddisor ... 4860466397 Even with the modification the outboard is impeaded by the pull pit but manageable.

As for steering with the outboard, this is something i've only had to do recently whilst sailing in the dark (Vivid festival - highly reccomend!) had the chart plotter zoomed out to far and clipped a contour tearing the rudder off. I agree its a nightmare, made it back to the ramp with a very sore arm/back from fighting it all the way up Parramatta River. Normally I have the outboard locked at the optimal position to keep the boat in a straight line without fighting the tiller, doesn't take long to figure out and it helps if you have a second person, one on the tiller and one on the outboard. Once its set you steer with the rudder like normal.

Hope this helps, and congrats on getting an Investigator!

[Raya]

Welcome Brett. You got a bargain with your purchase of Zephyr. Enjoy sailing her.

The Z in the HIN looks to be a mistake. Is it clearly stamped as a Z on the plate? Iit is either a transcription error or Z has some other meaning. I couldn’t find a copy of ISO 10087 to find out for sure. 1977 is a likely year of manufacture as the boats were made from 1975 through to 1989. What is the serial number on the HIN? Maybe the boat number is there.
Let us know if you find a number under the design award. The plaque was on boats from around numbers #50 to #100. If your boat was manufactured in 1977 the number should be near the #60’s. The Investigator name on the cabin side means the boat number should be greater than about #40. There is no definitive way to work out the boat number, but as Yarra says, it makes little difference as only minor changes were made to the design.

I think that the problem with the steering is with the pushpit design. The rear mounts are in from the gunnel along the transom and not at the corners like most other boats. You might have to get the pushpit modified to overcome the problem.

I clean light rust from the metal parts using very fine steel wool (000 grade. The more 0’s the better) and soapy water. Use polish afterwards to protect the shine.
Surface rust on the trailer is best removed by mechanical means (wire brush, scraper etc) and then sprayed with a zinc rich paint such as cold gal or silver zinc. You can buy both at Bunnings. In reality, the trailer will eventually rust from the inside out at which time you will need to replace the rusted out metal pieces. It pays to hose the trailer with fresh water after each dunking to slow down the rusting. One thing you could do is to pull of the wheel hubs and check the bearings. They are cheap to replace if necessary.

[Zephr]

Thanks guys awesome information for a newb like me. I have only taken it for a test run to date and had the rudder off because it's missing a pin or something to make it stay on, so will use the rudder in the long run. Vivid festival sounds really cool.

[Ozzie]

Belated welcome Brett, good to see the numbers / posts going up again.

[Zephr]

Cheers Ozzie look forward to talking with you all about your adventures

[atles]

sorry had lots on welcome!!
all the guys here will help you out with all your question