Peter Grinter introduced guest speaker Noel Phelan. Noel is a Team Leader at the Australian National Maritime Museum and has had a close connection with the water all his life.
Noel spoke to us about the history and life of the boatbuilding Halvorsen Family, who designed, built and sailed their boats. Randi Svensen, granddaughter of Lars Halvorsen, has written a book about the Halvorsen family – “Wooden Boats, Iron Men –The Halvorsen Story”.
Halvor Andersen became a boat builder in Norway in 1887 at the age of 58. His son Lars built his first boat at 16 before going to the US to study boat building. Back in Norway he built many boats required during WW1 and dreamt of building a boatyard with his sons. Lars and his wife Bergithe had 5 sons and 2 daughters. After the sinking of an uninsured wooden sailing ship he built and losing his fortune in the early 1920s as a result, Lars took his family to South Africa where he worked for a short while before moving to Sydney where he built his first boatyard in Careening Bay. He had many building contracts including with Burns Philp. During the depression years he built speed boats and took people out on harbour rides. Lars died in 1936 aged 49, but his sons continued the business with his eldest son Harold becoming Managing Director at the age of 27.
Halvorsens built a large boatyard at Ryde which had its own blacksmith’s shop and over many years they built tugs, police boats, fishing trawlers and cruisers. During WW2 they had a staff of 350 which built many vessels including supply boats, rescue vessels and boats for the RAAF. Many of their own vessels were requisitioned by the Navy, including two which dropped depth charges on the Japanese midget submarines which entered Sydney Harbour.
In 1945 Halvorsens purchased land at Bobbin Head where they built another large boatyard with 63 pleasure boats available for hire. The family business continued there until it closed in 2003.
The Halvorsen brothers also designed, built and raced yachts and competed in all the classic ocean races such as the Admiral’s Cup and Fastnet, and their yacht Freya won three back-to-back Sydney to Hobart races in the 1960s. Later they competed in closed water races. They also built Gretel for Frank Packer, the first Australian yacht to compete in the America’s Cup.
The current generation of Halvorsens are also designers and boatbuilders, although the boats today are mostly built in China and Hong Kong. Noel showed slides of many of the 1300 vessels that Halvorsens have built over many decades in the boat building business.
The Halvorsen Club was formed in 1991 and its members are all owners of a wooden Halvorsen vessel.
Garth Carter commented on Noel’s passion for boats and thanked him for his fascinating and interesting talk. He noted the history of the Halvorsens is intertwined with the history of Sydney.
.PNG)
