Retirement Project

[Raya]

One of my goals for retirement was to use my Investigator more. I haven’t had it in the water for the last couple of years and hadn’t used it much before that. It was looking the worse for wear so a spruce up was definitely in order.

I park (moor) the boat in the backyard where it is exposed to the usual leaf litter and flying fox bombs. I haven’t had much luck with boat covers over the years and eventually gave up on them. As a consequence, the woodwork has deteriorated and the fibreglass is dull and stained.

My Investigator is fairly original, in that it hasn’t had many modifications or any paintjobs since I have owned it. The interior is probably the same layout as when it left the factory. My aim is to not do a full restoration but simply to bring the boat back to an acceptable, original appearance.
As a start to the project, I decided to build a shed so that I could work under cover and also have somewhere to store the boat. If you measure up the length of boat and trailer, you find that you need a pretty big shed to fit it in. I only have a suburban block, but less mowing is always good. Here are some pics of the shed. I’ll post pics of the work on the boat as things progress.

[Ozzie]

Raya , I'm green with envy. I have a reasonable sized house but only a single garage. A shed for boats and projects would be fantastic. My wife however has banned such additions . She says I will fill it with junk. After 38 years of marriage she knows me far too well.

Look forward to progress shots.

[Yara50]

That shed is bloody marvellous. Just dont forget to add the roof vents for your Gold Coast summers.
How about some pics of the "before" boat?

[Raya]

No vents in the roof but insulation under the iron. With the high roof, heat build up isn't an issue. Here is a picture of the finished shed.

[Raya]

My first task was a thorough clean of the deck and hull. My waterblaster does a good job removing most of the dirt but this time I wanted to bring a bit of lustre back to the fibreglass. I haven’t found a good product for removing stains on fibreglass so I used the same technique that I use for polishing headlights. This calls for wet sanding using increasingly finer grades of paper. I started at 400 and worked up to 1000 grade over the course of a couple of days. When I finish my renovations, I’ll go over the boat again with 2000 grit before applying some polish. The boat certainly looked a lot better for my efforts.

The next job was to replace the woodwork. The timber under the mainsail traveller had deteriorated and I tackled this first. I have seen picture of Investigators where the traveller is secured directly to the fibreglass but I opted to replace the wood. The original pieces were capped either side in ply but I simply used solid hardwood for the replacements. You need to be double jointed to get at the bolts holding these down but it is possible with a bit of persistence. I decided to try Cabot’s exterior varnish stain (maple) for the timber finish. This product is water based and drying time is only two hours. It certainly is easy to use and looks the part, but only time will tell how well it will stand up to the elements. I bedded the new wood down using black Sikaflex 291. Here a couple of pictures to show the progress.

[Raya]

I like the look of the original wooden toerails on the investigator and wanted to duplicate these. I think that the original wood was maple or maybe silky oak, neither of which is readily available in my area. The problem is finding a suitable timber in the length required as the major suppliers have only shorter lengths and I didn’t want to scarf the timber. I tracked down some 5.8m lengths of 48x19 Pacific Maple (Meranti) at a timber yard on the Tweed that would do the job. (One trick I use when carrying long lengths of timber on roof racks is to use an extension ladder to support the overhangs. You simple extend the ladder to the appropriate length and it provides a rigid platform to tie to.) I purchased three lengths (in case I stuffed one up) for a very reasonable $60.
Pacific Maple is a soft timber and it was no problem to machine the toerails to the profile. I used a 6m plank to support the timber when using the router. The Cabot’s maple varnish worked well on the timber. The rail was fitted to the boat using only glue. My original rail had rotted where the fasteners were. I made up clamping blocks to make sure that the rail was hard against the chine for the entire length and used numerous clamps to secure it while the Epiglue hardened. Epiglue is a two pack marine adhesive that I have used before. It is expensive (the glue cost more than the timber) but is very good. Surprisingly, you can buy it from Bunnings as well as marine suppliers.


I used Tasmanian Oak round section from Bunnings for the handrails. I bent them using a couple of clamps and left them outside for a week or so to retain the bend. This makes fitting them a lot easier. I also bought a sheet of tinted Perspex so that I could replace the windows as you could hardly see through the old ones. The correct jigsaw blades, designed for Perspex, make cutting out easy. The old windows (and screw holes) were used as a template. You need to taper in the cut to make the windows fit the openings. I used a product called Fix200 to bed in the Perspex. This is designed for the task and worked well. Unfortunately, the product is messy, so I had to carefully mask up the openings first. I let the Fix200 cure before trimming the excess with a Stanley knife. It looked neat after I finished.

[Raya]

My boat was missing the original fibreglass sliding hatch when I purchased it. At some earlier time, a wood hatch had been fabricated along with bat-wing doors instead of wash boards. I thought about fabricating a fibreglass hatch this time around but eventually decided to just make a new wooden one. Making a plug for the fibreglass hatch would be difficult especially seeing that I don’t have an original to copy from. (I’ll leave that project for some future date.) I decided also to replace the bat-wing doors with washboards in case I get brave enough to take the boat through the seaway.

One weak point of the hatch design, is the likelihood of the small returns under the side rails breaking off. These are the only things that stop the hatch from coming off. To strength this part, I fabricated a couple of brass reinforcing plates and attached them to the outside of the hatch. I also make up some aluminium brackets to strengthen the front of the hatch. This should keep it in place. I'm still considering my options as to how to secure the pop top to the deck. My boat doesn't appear to have had any catches for this task. I'm thinking that a couple of tonneau-cover stretch loops will do the trick.

[Ozzie]

Mate, well done. There is no doubting that timber sets the Investigator off really well . If I were not moored I would have more if it . I do have as much as possible inside.

Good idea to prebend the handrails . I used tassie oak also but bent it as I installed it on the boat. Something of a chore. Your boat looks great.

Get it sorted as soon as possible. The further into retirement I get the less time I seem to get for sailing as spouses, children and relatives seem to provide other time constraints

&$8$$ing down here at the moment . Can't sail but brushing the rust off and painting my spare anchor , does that count as boating activity ?

[Andrew]

Brilliant work Ray,

The boats looking very good with the wood trim and the shed's par excellence,

What shed dimensions would you recommend for Investigator restoration/?

All the best with the restoration

[Raya]

My shed is 8 metres wide and 10 metres long. The Investigator fits nicely into the 8 metre bay with just enough room to walk past at either end. You need to make the shed, and the roller door, high enough to accommodate the boat and also allow enough head room so that you can walk around the deck without banging your head. I made mine 3.6 metres high, which is great. Most councils don't allow you to build a shed this big without a "relaxation". In my case, this was another $1500 to the cost of the approval. In hindsight, I should have made the shed a little bigger, but that applies to whatever size shed you build.