Halvorsen 26' motor sailer

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Halvorsen 26\' motor sailer

I am looking at 26' halvorsen motor sailer older boat oregon copper sheathed. Suposed to be built in Sydney used by the navy. If any one has knowledge of such a boat and what it was used for etc... I would be greatful.

I am after a bit of history on her also any one that is aware of problems and things to look out for with this type of boat. Has a 56 hp diesel ford motor, would this have been original.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Any ideas help etc greatly appreciated...
 
Re: Halvorsen 26\' motor sailer

Lars Halvorsen built a huge number of motor cruisers in Sydney. He was succeeded by his sons Magnus and Trygve. They also ran a livery [hire] service, and the copper sheathing suggests that this boat may have been one of these hire boats. A 56hp Ford diesel is quite a large engine for just a 26ft boat, and certainly would not have been used in a livery boat. If the boat was built pre-war, the first engine is more likely to have been petrol or kerosene powered. I believe that Ford Diesels only go back to the 1970's. Before that their trucks and tractors were all petrol powered.

While Halvorsen's would have built boats for the Navy during the war, I'd be surprised if any were as small as 26ft long. I think that 40 ft would have been considered pretty minimal.

Halvorsen's building practices were sound, so what you have to look for for is the result of later neglect. The usual suspects; blackened and/or soft wood, dodgy wiring and so on.
Peter.
 
Re: Halvorsen 26\' motor sailer

[ QUOTE ]
Has a 56 hp diesel ford motor, would this have been original.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Any ideas help etc greatly appreciated...

[/ QUOTE ]

Can not recall the Navy using Ford motors. I spent 20 years in the RAN. For the last 23 years I have been a fisherman and my fishing vessel is actually a converted Army/Navy 40ft work boat built at the end of the war. 80 of these boats were built, some in Sydney by Halvorsens. The Halvorsen boats had GM grey motors. The other boats built in Melbourne by GMH and Ford had Gardners. Ships boats at the time I served were motorised whalers, these were 30ft carvel hulls, had a centreboard and sailed well. Their engines were flat aircooled diesels. Melbourne and Sydney had motor cutters but these were about 30 foot or more and had long cabins and certainly not sailers. I ran a couple of cutters when I was a seamanship instuctor at Leeuwin, these had Lister diesels. They were probably about 28 foot long. My students rowed/sailed whalers, these were 27 foot long clinker hulls, canoe sterned and lightly built. One of these may have been converted and had a shaft driven diesel added. Most of these eventually ended up with sea scouts.
 
Re: Halvorsen 26\' motor sailer

I have found a little more about the boat, I think. She was alledgedly built for the RN not the RAN, believed to be in 1945 north of Sydney but was never used by the British Navy due to the war ending the ford motor is believed to have gone into her in the 50's.
 
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