INVESTIGATOR 563

When Kevin Shepherd designed the Investigator, he was working as a sailmaker for Hood sails in Sydney. It would be logical to think that the sails for our boats would be made by that company to Kevin's specifications. I'm pretty sure that I have a set of original sails but they don't have the Hood logo. The only clue to the sailmaker on my old sails is the logo. (see attached photo.) Does anyone else have this logo on their sails? It would be good to fill in a bit more of the history of our yachts.

Ray, 99 % certain my sails are North Sails and they are originals. I'll check next time I'm on the boat. Perhaps considering the Investigator was constructed in various locations they used local sailmakers who would be given the specs, logo , font for numbers etc.

Yep mine have that logo and if my aged-mind is working they are Air-Lite sails.

Now that I think about it, the builder of the boats would have sourced the sails and not the designer. The builder would have been after the best deal he could get and probably ordered them in larger quantities from the supplier. Different builders may have had different suppliers.
What is your sail number No Way? We should be able to figure out how many sails were made by Air-Lite by the difference in our numbers.

I have a YA number so can't help you with that one. Have no idea of my build number. Boat builders in Sydney around that time were either on the northern beaches or on the southside around Taren Point.
The builders tended to have suppliers including sailmakers in the same area. Funnily though the I563 was built at Brookvale/Manly Vale but I think Airlite were on the southside. Also, some boats were sold without sails so it was up to the owner which sails were on the boat.

Yes, the boats were made in Manly Vale at 1 Campbell Parade. I know that that some were made in WA but haven't found a reference to them being assembled elsewhere. Maybe someone knows more about this.

I thought that your sail would have a number on it seeing that is original. It might be just coincidence that our sails were made by the same firm.
I wonder how many people ordered their boats without sails. The list of options was quite long but it seems strange to not supply sails with a sailboat.

Mine is a Yachting Association number 4717. Which may or may not have a bearing on build number. At the time these boats were built if you wanted a YA number which was universal you took the next number they dished up in chronological order. The first owner could have quite easily requested that number be affixed to sail from the start. These days YA numbers are a bit like car rego's you can dream up anything and get it.

Thanks for the explanation. I have seen a photo of an Investigator with a four digit sail number and was puzzled by that. Now it all makes sense. The Investigator in the photo was number 2836 so must have been a much earlier boat than yours.

YA numbers were also transferable because they were attached to ones YA membership so the number may not be chronological.