INVESTIGATOR 563

Hi,
My Investigator is in need of some TLC. It was bought in early 2019, and was originally agisted in Mordialloc Marina. I had always planned to remove it from the marina, however due to Covid it languished on its mooring for a longer time than anticipated. During that time some of the fenders failed and the Toe Rails were badly damaged.

I'm desperate to get ideas and direction on either: - Aluminium extrusion replacements
- Suitable marine hardwood replacements
- any other suggestions

Such was my haste to extract the boat from its mooring, I have never had a chance to check the sail number before putting it in storage, however the front hatch is a 2-hinge type and the rego number is TQ 637

I am weighing up whether I keep this lovely girl, or if it would be better to pass her on, based on what it may take to fix her up

Any help would be appreciated

Hi Simon, if you put “toerail” in the search box you will get a good number of hits and advice. I’ll quote myself from one of them.

Worth the effort. Toe rail IMHO is a most important safety feature. It makes moving around the boat much safer and sure footed. At heel or level . Black toerail adds 2k to the value of the boat I always say, particularly when matched with black below the waterline. I’d paint my bare alloy rail black if it didn’t probably need to be touched up all the time. Looks great, very modernising

I usually suggest bunging a “wanted” ad on gumtree or book of face if you use that. Sailors are notorious hoarders and I got my quality 2nd hand alloy rail off gumtree years ago for a song. There are many alternatives posted in the search results, all very workable. My alloy rail also stiffened the boat up as well or at least made it feel that way. Best thing I’ve done.

I’d persevere with the Investigator, as most people here will agree they are a very rewarding vessel with big boat stability and small boat accessibility, not to mention low price and maintenance costs. My friend has a 40’ keeler and it’s hitting him $10k a year to keep it. I doubt my 563 has cost me that in decades of ownership even with government robbery

Mooring gives you instant and more frequent use though not for everyone. Hope you find something in the search results that make you feel more confident in keeping her. I’m sure in the long run it will be worth it.

Cheers Ozzie. i appreciate the info.

I do want to keep her, just finding ready solutions are not always apparent, and suppliers hard to come by

Have you also done your windows on your boat? Mine leake terribly when it rains if uncovered

Your welcome Simon. Love your boat name by the way. I did do my windows as per this section.

viewtopic.php?t=1057&hilit=Belt&start=10.

I am, having found that thread, in total shock that it was 2020. Where does time go?

There are many windows threads on here ranging from Cruiser Pete to Geoff and Peter T. I am a dinosaur as I used screw fasteners as per original. Apparently double sided 3m tape is now de rigueur for such replacement. Mine are still ok other than front one which I shall replace soon using my heat gun to bend the new one to the shape of the hatch rather than press forcing it and screws. Good luck with it all . Share your progress if you can, always welcome a new Investigator story.

Still looking for solutions for my missing toerails. Any advice gratefully accepted

Hi Simon,

You can see my toe rail narrative here: viewtopic.php?p=9469&hilit=toe+rail#p9469

Here's a picture of a wood solution from elsewhere in the forum: Alu toe rail: The boat is worth it if you can use it.

Good luck!

Hi,
Just in the process of finishing off toe rails on Ripple. Have been working on her for a few years (yes years ) now. Just about finished.

When I got her there were no toe rails on her and I opted to go with timber ones. I bought lengths of spotted Gum decking when I bought Ripple and finally got around to starting to put it on a couple of weeks ago. Not working on it full time hence the delay. I will put up photos of what I have done when it gets light enough to take decent photos. Almost identical to the photo in the post. The only problem I have encountered was that as the timber is totally dry now it is rather difficult to bend, but perseverance is paying off. My solution may not appeal to everyone as the installation is rather permanent.
I not only screwed the decking on, but also glued it on with epoxy glue. Starting again, It would be better if the decking was a bit wetter and not so resistant to bending.
1) The decking started at 62mm x 18mm pencil round DAR
2) For the external section, I took a 3mm slice x 53mm (enough to clear the pencil round) off the original 62 x 18.
3) For the internal section, I ripped the decking down the middle and trimmed it down to 30 x 15 such that only one corner was pencil round
4) All scarfing or joining of the lengths of timber was just a standard 45 degrees cut.
5) As the timber was dry and stiff to bend, I drilled mounting screw holes approx 100mm apart along the deck / hull join to secure the internal section
6) Apart from screws I used Epoxy adhesive (From Trojan Fiberglass) to secure a) Internal section to deck, & b) External section to Internal section and deck
I initially thought that the glue would be enough to hold the external section to the internal section, but the strain of the bent timber was too much and the two sections came apart (even though the epoxy was hardened) so I reglued it and screwed the two sections together. I will put timber plugs over the screw head so that they are not seen.
If there are any questions please do not hesitate to message me.

Gee that looks great Rick. Thanks for adding detail of construction. Nothing like timber to make a boat look good. Very impressive!