INVESTIGATOR 563

Looks like mishka got the good toe rails.

Well, I have some very interesting news. In a previous post in this thread, I said I was going to try and contact the original owner of my boat which is Sail NO 114 and was called Spindrift, now Sail - La - Vie.
The original owner is David Harvey who lives in Launceston and is in his 90's. He first purchased the boat from the Tasmanian TrailerableYacht Sales company who were located at 26 Gunn St Devonport. David had to order the boat and wait for it to be constructed in NSW. Just prior to this, the factory had a fire and the moulds for the Investigators were destroyed in that fire. David's boat was the first one to come out of the new moulds which were built to replace the destroyed ones. This is Sail NO 114 and it was purchased on 10th March 1979. Later, David had Steve Walker Sails on the NW of Tasmania make him the Storm jib, The Spinaker and Genoa which is still with the boat.
What this says is that any Sail numbers prior to 114 were probably built prior to March 1979 and came out of a different set of mounds than mine and the ones that came later from that factory.
David is very interested in what I am doing to the boat, he is going so send me more info, photos etc soon and I am going to go am re- meet him again soon.
David sailed Gwen 12's at Deviot yacht club, as did I with my best mate at the time which was well before him purchasing Spindrift and I remember him well.
So lovely to have been able to catch up with him and find out more about our common interest. The Investigator.

Great information Peter, directly from the source. This blows my theory that the change to the stern design was a result of the mould fire. The confirmed production date also firms up the production timeline.

I've amended my graph based on Peter's findings. If anyone else has a definite production date for their Investigator that doesn't fit the graph, let me know and I'll adjust the graph to suit.

Thanks Ray. I have not checked with David as yet, and I don't know how long he had to wait for his boat but I suspect the date of March was probably when he ordered it. When I get to go and see him, I will find out more as well as get a copy of his purchase documents. He also sent me some photos and yachting MAG articles. They are in pdf file format. Not sure how I post these as makes interesting reading ?

Peter, you can post the PDF as attachments.

Oh ok, thanks Ray

Mishka has been sold, but the previous owner's son (who crewed on Mishka) believes that it was a double hinge job.

So not absolutely definitive, but until the current owners contact us, or we see a better pic, we could say that #107 Mishka is the first of the 2 hinge model.

Edit: This has been proven incorrect. Mishka has been sold and renamed, and photos show it is definitely a single-hinger. So boats up to and including #107 have the single hinge. #108 on are double.