INVESTIGATOR 563

My Investigator does not have a Centre board and it appears to have never had one. Were there one or two built without?

I have looked closely and can not see any evidence of it being removed and covered up. I did not even think to look prior to buying, although I dont think it would have stopped me!

How will this effect performance?

T. The centerboard theoretically improves your performance to windward. I have because of my moored status finished the season sometimes with a stuck centerboard . Mainly because when the water/ weather gets cold it is none too inviting to dive under the boat and do a few scrapes with a hack saw to free it up like I do in summer. I find funnily enough that it's more noticeable in light wind that your pointing up in not so good and you get more lee way movement . That's at least how it seems to me. Went the wind picks up and your moving along the lack of cb is less noticeable.

Somewhere , Ian , are you there , I remember maybe Karl saying you can improve your windward reformance with no cb by leaning the boat into the wind with your crew shifting their weight or did I dream that after a bad curry?

Remember the 563 has a long keel and as such has a fair bit of fin in water so to speak. Also the long keel has all your ballast. The weight of the cb is only to lower it and keep it down . Some owners have gone to aluminium cb.

It would be interesting to go a circuit with board up and then down to see what difference it made to your time. Remember when going down wind 563 can lift the board up for better speed and have it half up on a broad reach. I usually only bother on a long downwind from the Speers Point end of the lake.

Hope this helps . Ian B will probably have a better insight into this.

I am really interested in this (see discussion about weather helm:

What kind of rudder do you have?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca1nl4jrp0n2e ... 164737.jpg

As I have only seen my Investigator in the flesh, I am not sure whether this is a normal rudder.

Appreciate the provision of a .jpg. FYI you have a fixed rudder - the one I dislike so much I changed mine; with very positive results (see other posts).

Excessive heeling = excessive weatherhelm therefore keeping the boat upright does help

It would be interesting to compare performance CB vs. no CB. I think the CB might only help in very light conditions.

You have given me much to think about.

No c/b means poor performance to windward. The bow points OK, but the boat slips sideways through the water more than with a c/b down.

I find it hard to believe that your boat never had a c/b. What do you see when you look under the boat?

BTW, if you reduce the size of your pics to below 50kb, you can post them here.

I see nothing but solid fully gkassed keel, no signs of it being glassed over?

Thank for the pic tip, but I tend to post from my phone so that's why I use Dropbox.

Tenaciousgreen wrote:
As I have only seen my Investigator in the flesh, I am not sure whether this is a normal rudder.

I've 2 rudders with my I563 and one is exactly the same as pictured in your photo. Your photo looks like the original Fibreglass rudder which if not looked after can crack and get water inside which will eventually destroy it. I've also got a wood rudder which although heavier is more durable.

I'm going to modify one of my rudders a lift up style, just not sure how to go about doing that and which rudder to sacrifice to a lift up

Cheers, Pete

Matt wrote:Re centreboard - was interested in replacing my centreboard with an aluminium one.
Could anyone tell me the width of the centreboard on our investigators as I downloaded the spec sheet that's on this website and am thinking of having the sheet metal shop next door quote me on building a replacement in aluminium.
Cheers Matt (Sherlock 2)

Did you get the measurement. I have my cb out of the boat if you still want to know.