I had to pull instant search out of the topkDOTjeandretDOTcom for other problems.

Still, on topkayakerDOTcom, entering n gets maximum results naturally. na gets the max again. nau still gets the max. naut starts narrowing the results and you'll note that after na, the top item has naturally been the Nautical Protractor.

Inputting nautical in any case results in the same two items with the Nautical Protractor on top clearly showing its products_mdel entry of CTR-255 (SR4)

BUT....

When you enter just c (upper or lower case) that corresponds with the first digit of the products_model entry, there is no mention of the Nautical Protractor.

What needs to be done to force instant search to find me the Nautical Protractor by products_model?!?

I am not sure which version of instant search is on this site. It's 1.5.7d with SBA, but I have tried all versions of Instant Search that are supposed to work with 1.5.7d on a test site. All have done the same thing.