Classic wooden Halvorsen cruisers are instantly recognised, up on the slip, or out on the water. They are a lasting tribute to the family of craftsmen who designed and built them. 

The classic and unmistakeable lines of an early Halvorsen bridgedeck cruiser out on the water. 

The Halvorsen family has a proud history of more than 130 years and five generations as designers and craftsmen, the Halvorsen tradition continues to this day.

The Halvorsen story started in Norway near the end of the 19th century with Halvor Andersen who was born in 1829 and died in 1906.

The family boat building tradition can be traced to the Norwegian coastline around Arendal and Grimstad, where Halvor Anderson followed local tradition and built boats during the savage winter months when farming activities were restricted.

From Arendal it's only 20 kilometres to Grimstad, where you will find today lines of white houses with orange tiled roofs, jutting out along the harbour. In young Lar's time the town had no fewer than forty ship yards, plying their craft in Wooden boat building.

Arendal Harbour, today, with a classic wooden double ender about to dock. 

The love of the sea and the heritage of boatbuilding are still fundamental to this region of Norway.

In February 1887, Halvor was blessed with a son, Lars. The Halvorsen surname adopted by Lars follows the accepted Norwegian tradition of using the father’s first name and being “son of “-sen, hence Halvorsen.

Lars built his first boat in 1903 at the age of 16 and it soon became apparent that boat building would be his forte. He designed and built boats for the local market, travelled to America for further experience, and returned to Norway, where he took advantage of a boatbuilding boom caused by the First World War.

Lars Halvorsen and family in Sydney, 1927. Back row: Harold, Carl, Bjarne. Middle row: Elnor, Bergithe, Margit, Lars, Magnus. Front: Trygve.

A post-war slump saw Halvorsen family eventually relocate to Cape Town, South Africa, however Lars was uncertain of the family opportunities in South Africa and, following the highly regarded advice of a business associate, he investigated Sydney in late 1924.

Neither Lars Halvorsen – who led his family to take up boatbuilding in Australia – nor his sons were formally schooled shipwrights, yet the talent for boatbuilding and design that passed from father to sons can be appreciated today through surviving plans and photographs – and more importantly, through the broad range of Halvorsen boats that have now become so highly sought-after as collectable classic wooden boats.

Lars Halvorsen laid the foundations of an enterprise that under the management of his sons diversified from their core business of boatbuilding into commercial fishing, tourism, brokerage and recreational boating.

If you can build a wooden boat you can build anything. - Lars Halvorsen.

In the case of the Halvorsen family this simple philosophy has extended to building businesses' – and successful lives – in Norway, South Africa and Australia. 

From 1906 Lars journeyed to America to gain valuable experience working in shipyards in New York, Connecticut and Long Island. In 1909 he returned to Norway to marry his betrothed, Bergithe Klemmetsen, and establish the Helle Baatbyggeri, a boatyard modelled on modern American production lines, at Helle on the Nid River. The family grew steadily with Harold, Carl, Elnor, Bjarne and Magnus born between 1910 and 1918, and the youngest children Trygve and Margit born in 1920 and 1922.

A devout man, Lars also served as a lay preacher in his local community.
During World War I the yard thrived as Norway’s neutrality ensured a steady stream of orders, but the following years brought hardship as work dwindled. To keep his yard open Lars built the three-masted cargo schooner Nidelv.

Unable to sell it, Lars operated the ship himself in partnership with Lars Knudsen, a ship’s chandler based in Wales. Owing to a shortage of funds Lars cancelled the insurance – a decision that was to have devastating consequences for the family.

The schooner was wrecked on its next voyage, in 1921, resulting in financial ruin for Lars, his family and financial backers. With little chance of rebuilding the family’s fortunes in Norway Lars chose to move the family and business abroad.

Leaving Bergithe and his children, Lars sailed for South Africa to look for work in 1922 while his wife, awaiting the birth of her youngest child, finalised the boatyard’s affairs. The family was reunited in Cape Town in 1923. Here Lars established a reputation for designing and building elegant yachts and sound fishing boats.

As business was slow he postponed his plan to run a family business with his sons and instead went into partnership with a rival boatbuilder, forming Louw and Halvorsen. With Lars at the boatyard and the older children in school, Bergithe was isolated at home with the younger children and struggled with ill health, homesickness and learning English.