halvorsen freya yacht

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• Sailboat Guide

Freya 39 is a 39 ′ 2 ″ / 12 m monohull sailboat designed by Halverson Bros. and built by Gannon Yachts starting in 1970.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

From BlueWaterBoats.org :

The Freya 39 is a double-ended offshore cruiser designed by Trygve Halvorsen who comes from the well known Halvorson yachting family in Australia. She’s a proven passagemaker with a number of circumnavigations to her credit. The original yacht  Freya , on which the Freya 39 was modelled, is famous as the three time consecutive winner of the notoriously difficult Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race (1963-1965), until recently the only yacht ever to do so.

The Freya 39 is a handsome boat with an upstanding bow, flush foredeck and a small trunk cabin aft. She was designed as a cutter with a large sail area and hull-stepped mast. She’s heavily constructed with thick layers of fibreglass in the hull and the deck is generally fibreglass with a plywood coring. Displacement is a moderately heavy 26,000 lbs. The Halvorsens were not believers in modern racing hulls or the practice of using crew as ballast so below the waterline she has a long flat-bottomed fin keel with a substantially cutaway forefoot and a keel hung rudder. She’s a dry boat with a small cockpit suitable for cruising offshore and is more commonly found with wheel steering rather than tiller.

Below decks her 11ft beam allows a fairly spacious and comfortable interior but as she was also sold as a kit boat, the interiors can be variable, particularly in regards to the finish quality. The interior arrangement usually has a main saloon with enclosed V-berth up forward, double quarter berth aft to starboard and a single quarter berth or work area aft to port. The U-shaped galley is to port under the trunk cabin with the nav station opposite.

As well as being a secure and seaworthy cruiser the Freya 39 is no slouch. Owners report that she is capable of 200 miles per day and can sail at a consistent 8 knots and above. This is borne out by the original  Freya’s racing results. In Randi Svensens book about the Halvorsens Wooden Boats, Iron Men: The Halvorsen Story Magnus Halvorsen states that the Freya had the feeling of a much bigger boat and had an incredibly responsive helm. He reports that she could carry a shy spinnaker longer than any other boat and carry full sail up until 30 knots of wind.

The Halvorsen family were Norwegian immigrants and skilled sailors who designed a long series of swift, seaworthy double ended yachts that achieved great success on the Australian racing scene. Freya was one of their most successful boats as the three time Sydney-Hobart winner. The original  Freya was a wooden boat and later versions were built in steel but in the 1970’s and 1980’s the Freya 39 was produced in fibreglass by Gannon Yachts in Petaluma, California. Jim Gannon was the boatyard owner and one of the original racing crew on Freya . He later went on to take second place overall, and first place in the large boat division, in the single-handed Transpac race in his own Freya 39 Golden Egg . Information on how many Freya 39’s were produced is difficult to find and she is no longer in production. The Australian National Maritime Museum holds the line drawings for the original  Freya and these can be viewed online (see link below)

Buyers Notes

The Freya 39 is not easy to come by on the second-hand boat market, their reputation as a performance bluewater cruiser means that they are in demand but when they do come on the market they are generally considered good value for money. Depending on age and condition, as at 2010 the asking price is roughly between $50k to $100k USD.

Links, References and Further Reading

» Through the Cracks by John Kretschmer » Freya 39 Owner’s blog Hot Shot Kaskelot » Freya 39 Owner’s Blog The Voyage of Foxglove =======

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Sydney’s Norwegian Vikings – The Halvorsen’s Sailing Legacy

• October 6, 2011
• Design Feature / Design News

John Engelen

1962 Members of America Cup team (l) 41yr old boat builder Trygve Halvorsen (m) 43 yr old Magnus Halvorsen and (r) foreman Trevor Gowland 29 yrs old

For some, the name Halvorsen brings back memories of idyllic holidays afloat in rented motor cruisers, exploring calm waterways and secluded bushland bays of Pittwater, Sydney and elsewhere.

For others, the name instantly recalls the Classic Ocean Race winning Halvorsen brothers, their superb racing yachts, Peer Gynt, Anitra V and Freya, and the Halvorsen built Gretel.

gretel 1962

For wooden boat lovers, the name Halvorsen is synonymous with boats designed and built by four generations of shipbuilders – each with an unerring eye for beautiful and balanced lines, and performance to match

This Norwegian–Australian family of boatbuilders and champion sailors had a passion for boating that has touched the lives of many Australians. Beyond the boat yard the Halvorsen brothers distinguished themselves in competitive sailing. They were exceptionally accomplished sailors and ocean racers.

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

Magnus and Trygve Halvorsen ( “venerable old salts” ) are among the most successful ocean-racing yachtsmen ever to have sailed out of Sydney Heads. Coming from a line of Norwegian shipbuilders and sea captains on both sides of the family that goes back five generations, there is so much salt in their veins it is little wonder that, when they took to the sport in 1945, they soon got into the habit of winning.

The Halvorsen’s participated in the Sydney to Hobart race most years from 1946 to 1982 and became Line Honours winner or overall winners on at least seven occassion.

The transition from Solveig to Freya – Sydney–Hobart race winners – is a case study of a considered approach to development where their own pragmatic thoughts guided the process from boat to boat. The Halvorsen Brothers record performances in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race some of which are unlikely ever to be broken, overshadow even their unquestioned distinction in boat building, yacht design (Trygve’s great talent) and ocean-yacht navigation (Magnus’ self-taught speciality).

The brothers won four Trans-Tasman races between 1948 and 1961 in their yachts Peer Gynt, Solveig and Norla, and went on to compete in Australia’s first Admiral’s Cup and America’s Cup in Freya and Gretel respectively. They also competed in the Southern Cross, Trans-Pacific and other races. There impressive sailing record has been recognised with national and international awards.

Carl Halvorsen also distinguished himself in the 5.5 class winning the Australian championship in 1967, 1982 and 1991, and was still sailing competitively at age 93

In the 1930s they crewed in harbour races organised by the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club. When sailing resumed after World War II the Halvorsens were soon associated with success in ocean racing.

Harold, Carl, Bjarne and their father were all members of the SASC, where they actively raced. Lars was the SASC’s honorary measurer. Trygve wanted to join the SASC but was knocked back on the grounds that he was a ‘professional’ — a logic difficult to fathom as he was the youngest member of the family and his father and brothers were already members of the club.

1935 sailing sydney harbour

the recently restored 1935 Halvorsen yacht “Scarab”

Corinthianism (amateurism) was jealously guarded by yacht clubs in those days, although Trygve was no more a ‘professional’ than the doctors and solicitors in the club, and he had never accepted money for anything to do with sailing.

Magnus and Trygve took umbrage, handed back to the SASC the trophies they had won and decided to go ocean racing with the CYCA.

During Easter 1945, the year the Rolex Sydney Hobart was born, Trygve Halvorsen became the recipient of the first trophy to be presented by the fledgling CYCA.

Trygve, at the time a member of the RMYC club and a pending CYCA member, was presented with the Ocean Race Trophy Easter 1945 for his win with his yacht Enterprise in a race to the Basin. Crewing for him was wife Noreen, sister Margit and her husband Arnold Svensen.

Trygve took the trophy home then later presented it to David Kellett to acknowledge the Past Commodore who named the Freya Room after the Halvorsen brothers’ three-time consecutive Sydney Hobart overall winner, Freya.

The first Sydney–Hobart began on Boxing Day, 1945, when nine yachts, all heavily built cruising craft equipped with canvas sails and natural fibre ropes (winches were unknown on yachts in those days) left Sydney on a 630 nautical mile race to Hobart.

In the six decades since that day, the race has become one of the great blue-water classics as sailors pit their skill and resolution against fickle winds and the fury of Bass Strait—and each other.

It is a story both of triumph and of occasional stark tragedy and has become one of the most keenly followed events in the Australian and international sporting calendars.

As well, it has played a vital part in the development of new techniques and technologies in both speed and safety

Brothers Trygve and Magnus built and entered their own yacht, Saga, in the second Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 1946. Saga was a 35-footer similar to Enterprise but with more accommodation below and, sensibly, a doghouse that proved sorely necessary in the 1946 Sydney to Hobart, when it blew 65 knots in Bass Strait for three days.

1946 dec at Halvorsens ship yard Morna foreground Saga next to it on the slips as well

Christina 1946

Saga was becalmed in the 1946 Hobart race for 12 hours at the mouth of the Derwent River and, in spite of this, achieved second place – They were narrowly beaten by the race’s handicap winner Christina, designed and built by their late father Lars.

Peer Gynt 1947

Designed with longer ocean racing and cruising in mind, the Halvorsens’ next boat, Peer Gynt, also designed by Magnus and Trygve, was larger — 36 feet — and very strongly built. Indeed, Trygve believed the boat strong enough to go to Antarctica in.

The Halvorsens had learned from their experience with Saga that angled rudders exacerbate the ‘death rolls’ when running square with a spinnaker.

Peer Gynt came third in the 1947 Sydney to Hobart and achieved two successive firsts in the 1948 and 1949 Trans-Tasman races — it encountered a cyclone in one and the other was a drifting race. The Halvorsens confess that she was no good in moderate conditions.

Commodore Mackillop hands the cup trophy in Sydney to Trygve Halvorsen (centre) and Magnus Halvorsen (right) for Peer Gynts victory in the 1948 Auckland to Sydney race

solveig 1952

1950 dec putting the mast up on solveig thor guaasala (left) trygve and magnus halvorsen

1953 Solveig at the gates of hell, hobart

Their next yacht, Solveig, was a lighter boat with a different shape. Trygve had become the chief designer, drawing a succession of plans for boats that were to have an almost unbelievable record of success. A raw talent, he did it all with just pencil and paper pencil and paper

Below on the left is the crew of the Solveig, second across the line. Front row, R. Floan, S. Darling, B. Madigan back row, T. Gowland and T. Halvorsen (skipper)

Solveig won the 1951 Trans-Tasman race, and in the 1953 Sydney to Hobart got line honours and second on corrected time – she was the first yacht to win the race with a spade rudder. Captain Stan Darling of the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve, the Halvorsens’ navigator, skippered Solveig in the 1954 Sydney to Hobart as both Magnus and Trygve fell ill on the eve of the race. She won that year’s race outright.

1953 sept – At the RSYS onboard Solveig before the journey to Noumea the next day are Magnus Halvorsen, his son Anders, Mrs Magnus Halvorsen, and Mr and Mrs Trygve Halvorsen

Anitra V, a 38-foot double-ender that went like a scalded cat downwind, was their next yacht. She was very light-strip-planked in Canadian cedar-and could pace it with Solo, which was some eight metres longer.

Anitra, as she was generally known – the ‘V’ was added as she was the Halvorsens’ fifth yacht – racked up an incredible win and three seconds in the Sydney to Hobart from 1956 to 1959.

1957 anitra crew 3rd place

1958 Anitra 2nd place Sydney – Hobart Back left Terry Hammond, Skipper Trygve Halvorsen, Phil Pilcher, Magnus Halvorsen. Front left Trevor Gowland, Stan McRae

With their next yacht, Norla, the Halvorsens departed from their tradition of selecting names from Scandinavian sagas by joining the names of Trygve and Magnus’ wives, Noreen and Paula.

trygve (left) and noreen halvorsen (far right)

1965 norla up the derwent in hobart

Norla was also a departure from Scandinavian double-ender tradition.

Unlike Peer Gynt, Solveig and Anitra V, all double-enders, Norla had a transom stern, Norla came first in Division I in the 1960 Sydney to Hobart and won the 1961 Trans-Tasman.

gretel sailing trials for americas cup challenge

During 1961 and 1962 Trygve and Magnus became involved in Australia’s first America’s Cup challenge, headed by the late Sir Frank Packer with Gretel, designed by the late Alan Payne and built by Lars Halvorsen Ryde.

Gretel was the first international challenger to win a race in the America’s Cup. She was launched on 19 February 1962 and put the Australian yachting scene on the map.

70 foot sloop Gretel, challenger for the America’s Cup, under construction, Lars Halvorsen & Sons, Ryde

gretel sydney harbour

In 1962 the Halvorsen built, Gretel was the first Australian yacht to challenge the New York Yacht Club for the famed America’s Cup. The USA defender Weatherly retained the Cup.

weatherly and contender gretel in america’s cup races

weatherly racing against gretel

gretel passing weatherly

1962 Sept Americas cup dinner

This was the beginning of an era which eventually resulted in the wrestling of the “Auld Mug” from the New York Yacht Club by Australia, after 132 years

Trygve and Magnus taught the America’s Cup crew about maintenance and towing, and Magnus crewed aboard Gretel in that series. In 1962 Trygve served as House Captain for the Cup team in Stamford, Newport, and also sailed in the first race for the America’s Cup in 1992.

The final Halvorsen yacht, and perhaps the most triumphant, was Freya – a double-ended development of Solveig. The 38-foot, 6-inch yacht had a vertical spade rudder and a long, straight keel, and she was planked in oregon and splined (a wedge glued between the planks instead of caulking).

Freya sailing in the 1965 Admiral’s Cup

She was thirty-eight feet nine inches long, with a beam of 11 feet. She was planked in Douglas fir with glued spline, upon glued Queensland maple laminated frames. Her deck was fiberglassed plywood, and her spar was a deck stepped aluminium mast. Her rudder tapered to a feather-edge.

Freya chalked up a Sydney to Hobart race record – three successive wins, in 1963, 1964 and 1965.

1964 freya sydney hobart race

1965 hobart finish

Randi Svensen quotes Magnus Halvorsen about Freya: – “Her long deadwood gave her the underwater body of a contemporary 50-55 footer. She had that feeling of a much bigger boat at sea. With her large vertical rudder there was perfect control. She responded to the helm at all times. Never did she broach to! Today’s sailors would find that unbelievable. She carried a shy spinnaker longer than any competing yacht. Indeed, a spinnaker could be carried until it was aback, without rounding up. Freya could also carry full sail to windward in 30 knots of wind.”

The conditions of the Sydney Hobart varies from hurricane force winds to no wind at all – but still Freya used 3 days, 10 hours in 1965, 3 days, 5 hours in 64 and 3 days, 6 hours on handicap in 1963. Which is astonishing consistent on a 628 nautical mile long race in all sorts of conditions – and even more amazing, her mean speed was more than 8 knots.  The Halvorsens must have pressed Freya above her theoretical speed at all times and in all conditions.

Freyas speed would have made her high up on modern list. She would have won in 2004, 2003, 1993, 1988, 1984, 1981, 1978, 1977, 1976, 1974, 1970, 1968, 1967, and 1966.

1965 magnus and trygve on freya

1966 yachtsman ball melbourne winners magnus left and trygve right with their wives

The last two years the winners have been doing the Sydney Hobart in less than two days. But Freya would still be doing better than most yachts given the same speed as during her three consecutive winning years.

And remember all of the Halvorsen race contenders was built both for cruising and racing. The Halvorsen thought of comfort, security and speed. Both Halvorsen brothers disliked modern racing hulls and the very idea of using men as ballast

Later Sold to the US, she is now being cruised in the Bahamas.

freya 39-brochure under sail

carl halvorsen 1968 on his yacht crest

1967 carl halvorsen on his boat crest

Crest was designed by Bill Luders and built by Lars Halvorsen and Sons boat builders in Sydney. She was launched on the 15th of January 1967 with original sail number of AUS-22, this is still her sail number.

Crest was raced immediately by Carl Halvorsen in Australian Gold Cup series and also at the World Champs in Sandham, Sweden in 1969 and sailed in World Champs by HRH Crown Prince Harald of Norway in Sydney 1970.

1970 feb : royal visitors boarding halvorsen kirribilli to watch the race

1970 feb Crest with prince harald norway

Along with CYCA Commodore Bill Psaltis and Rear Commodore Norman Rydge, Trygve Halvorsen proved instrumental in establishing Australia’s first Admiral’s Cup challenge in 1965. The team consisted of Freya, Caprice of Huon (Gordon Ingate) and Camille (Ron Swanson).

After their final Sydney to Hobart win with Freya, the Halvorsens went their separate ways in yachting after sharing the 1966 Australian Yachtsman of the Year honour.

Trygve then did a Sydney to Hobart with John Robertson on Portia and with Bill Psaltis on Meltemi, as well as other races aboard Ondine and Apollo.

In 1972 Magnus served as navigator aboard Kialoa II when she won the Trans-Tasman race (line honours, handicap and broke the race record).

As an Australian navigator with ‘local knowledge’, he was keenly sought by boats from overseas.

1968 sydney to hobart start

He navigated the US yacht Ranger in the 1968 Sydney to Hobart, when there was poor visibility and a ‘freak’ set in Bass Strait that put a number of the fleet west of Flinders Island.

He also navigated Alan Bond’s Apolio in the 1970 Sydney to Hobart and was navigator on the NZ yacht Kishmul in the World One Ton Cup series, in Auckland.

1973 halvorsen yacht

He navigated Koomooloo in the 1972 Sydney to Hobart race and in 1974 was navigator aboard Peter Kurts’ victorious Love and War in the Sydney to Hobart and the Admiral’s Cup series.  The list goes on: Kialoa ill in the Southern Cross Cup series 1975; Love and War in the inaugural Sydney-Suva race 1976; Windward Passage in the 1977 Hobart; Siska in 1979; and Vicious in the 1982 Hobart.

The pace of change in ocean racing started to quicken in the latter half of the 1960s, and in the following decade the sport became much more expensive, with the designs going out of date more quickly.

Magnus Halvorsen has recorded the following thoughts in his monograph, Some Sailing Reflections (August 2001).

“Around 1967 the Royal Ocean Racing Club measurement rules were dropped in favour of an international system which had frequent changes. The new measurement rules were favouring boat speed at the expense of sea-kindliness, safety and stability. Yacht designers were vying to make their boats lighter and faster, whereas the RORC favoured heavy scantlings and, therefore, safety. The new rules reached the ludicrous stage when the crew were used as ballast.

“In short coastal races, boats were damaged and crew injured. By 1979 I became alarmed at the risks crews were taking in the latest designs, I called them ‘cocktail shakers’. Crews were playing Russian roulette without realising it. I said publicly at the time that, if the present design trend continued, there would be a disaster in the Sydney-Hobart race.

The 1998 (Sydney to Hobart race) weather was rare but not unique. We had the same in 1946, in the same location, when the storm conditions were of longer duration.”

Trygve Halvorsen describes contemporary designs as “…big skiffs. Just big harbour skiffs, That’s why they’re so uncomfortable.”

In 1948 the Halvorsens had built Peer Gynt so she was “strong enough to go to Antarctica”, and she had sumptuous accommodation below, including long berths that could be pivoted and tilted and locked in the desired position. So, it’s perhaps easy to understand Trygve’s disdain for the modern ‘grand prix’ ocean racer.

Trygve describes going through a cyclone in Peer Gynt in the 1948 Trans-Tasman race – the anemometer instrument for measuring the speed of airflow at Lord Howe Island blew down at 112mph : “The ocean was like a grassfire…screaming at us…huge combers built up on the sea mount…”

The Halvorsens had learnt that, in order to win a race, you had to finish it, and that meant having a sea worthy boat.

Magnus recalls: “A huge, steep and breaking wave rolled on us, like being in a dumper crashing on a beach. We had been completely overwhelmed. The breaker turned us side on, with tremendous momentum, We then rolled, with the mast pointing at the sea bed. There was a prolonged deep rumbling sound with severe shaking.

“It was an unforgettable lesson that a boat’s deck and superstructure need to be as strong as the hull. Designers of today’s lightweight ocean racers should seriously take note. Most susceptible are those designs prone to broaching.”

Magnus points out that the Fastnet Race was dropped from the last Admiral’s Cup series and the series itself has been cancelled for at least two years.

“There has to be an important message in dropping the Fastnet. It requires a double crossing of the Celtic Sea. From the safety aspect this is to be applauded, but it is a slight on yachts now in offshore competition. It is an admission that they are not seaworthy enough.”

Magnus says it seems the current generation of sailors think personal injury among crew and boat damage are par for the course, and we should all be concerned about this. He has mileage under sail equivalent to five times around the world, and the only injury he has sustained is a rope burn caused by entanglement on the top of his hand when a loose headsail whipped in a sudden gust.

“As a master boatbuilder and marine surveyor, I could never fathom why underwriters would insure these damage-prone yachts, even when manned by professionals,” he adds.

How does Trygve Halvorsen account for his family’s success in the Sydney to Hobart?

He says that one of the main factors was the level of concentration at night. Several skippers have commented that they could be sailing next to Freya on the way to Hobart in the late afternoon, but by the next morning she was out of sight.

“When the crew were finished their watches, they’d go down below and rest and get out of the weather,” says Trygve. “Noreen supplied us with good food. If it got very rough, we’d have steak-dry-fried so it couldn’t burn anyone, and you could put that between two slices of bread and you could even eat steering.

“Another thing we’d worked out was only three of us steered: Trevor (Gowland), Magnus and myself One hour on, and then we’d have two off. Anything more than two hours below and you’d lose your touch; you get too dopey”

Some skippers allege that luck plays a big part in winning the Sydney to Hobart. The Halvorsens agree, especially when it comes to the weather.

Stan Darling used to say that the Sydney to Hobart was like a foot race to Parramatta where you had to catch the train back to Sydney in order to finish. If there’s a train leaving when you get to Parramatta, you’re fine; if not, you may have to wait several hours.

The analogy refers to the final leg of the course – Storm Bay and the Derwent River. Darling has noted that Storm Bay belies its name as contestants often fall into a hole there.

But Saga was becalmed at the mouth of the Derwent for 12 hours in the 1946 race and still came second.

In the early years of the race, Trygve Halvorsen recalled the boats were much smaller than the modern day leviathans studding last year’s fleet, which included five 100-foot maxis.

In contrast to recent year’s fleets of 100+ boats, Halvorsen recalled they were “lucky to get 20” in the early years of the event.

“It’s a different game, it’s a different sport (now), it used to take us nearly a week to get there in the old days in the small boats.”   The modern day high-powered maxis like Wild Oats XI, Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard can all expect to reach Hobart in around two days.

This year’s multi-national fleet can expect to draw thousands of spectator craft to Sydney Harbour and large amounts of people to the adjoining foreshores. Trygve Halvorsen said the early years of the race didn’t attract a great deal of interest among the public, but the situation improved once radio started covering the event.

a young Trevor Gowland (right) working on America’s Cup challenger Gretel at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1962.

Trevor Gowland

Trevor was one of Australia’s leading boat-builders, noted for his interpretation of the designer’s plans into hull construction. He died in 2007, aged 75 after a courageous18-month battle with cancer.

The modest, innovative boatbuilder sailed with the Halvorsen brothers Trgve and Magnus, in their Sydney-Hobart race wins and spent almost his entire working life with the Halvorsen family’s boatyards and in recent years as manager of their Bobbin Head hire-cruiser marina.

He began sailing in 1944, on a VJ from Concord Ryde SC and built his first boat at the age of 13 or 14, a 10ft wooden-framed canvas canoe, which was stolen from the back yard before he could launch it.

He started an apprenticeship at the Garden Island naval dockyard in 1947 and four years later left to join Lars Halvorsen and Sons, the established builder of commercial and naval vessels, powerboats and yachts at Ryde.

Gowland sailed on six winners in his 15 Sydney-Hobart races. His first Hobart was on Jack Halliday’s Ellida in 1951. The same year he was recruited by the Halvorsen brothers to sail on Solveig.

He was aboard Solveig in her 1954 Sydney-Hobart win and continued crewing for the Halvorsens on their subsequent boats Anitra V, Norla and Freya in Sydney-Hobart, TransTasman and Transpac races. Anitra V won the Hobart race in 1957 and Freya in an unparalled run won the 1963, 1964 and 1965 Hobart races. By then Gowland was one of the three regular helmsmen with Trygve and Magnus.

While Trygve Halvorsen retired from ocean racing following the 1965 Hobart win, Howland sailed four more Hobart races. He was on Ted Turner’s American Eagle in her 1972 race win on handicap and line honours.

At Lars Halvorsen’s, Gowland was involved in building Norla, Freya, Anitra and Australia’s first America’s Cup challenger Gretel. He also crewed on Gretel in the 1962 America’s Cup.

With Trygve and Magnus he left Lars Halvorsen in 1967 to join steel fabricators Jim and Jock Morson to form Halvorsen, Morson and Gowland.

The company built 75 boats in steel, fibreglass and aluminium: motor cruisers, motor sailers and yachts including Ballyhoo, Ginkgo, Apollo ll and Alan Bond’s 1974 America’s Cup challenger Southern Cross.

When HMG wound up in the 1980s Trevor became general manager of Halvorsen Boats, Bobbin Head until his retirement.  He lived at Point Clare on Brisbane Water and raced in the Etchells class at Gosford SC through the 1990s.

In this retirement he was enjoying restoring models of early racing skiffs, tinkering and cruising on his 44ft cold-moulded wooden yacht Boolaroo, even after he was diagnosed with cancer about 18 months before he died.

His final voyage, two weeks before his death, with his daughter Justine and son Cline was to take Boolaroo across Broken Bay down Pittwater to Beashel’s Yacht Basin to have damage she suffered in the June storms repaired and a new rig and sails installed.

Trygve Halvorsen in his eulogy at the funeral, attended by a large gathering of Central Coast friends and Sydney offshore old timers, said: “Trevor was like one of the family to us; he was with us from apprenticeship for most of his working life.

“He was a very lovely man and respected by all he met. I never heard him say a harsh word or get cranky. Sailing, he not only ran the foredeck. He was an excellent helmsman and could sail anywhere on the boat.”

Gowland introduced Halvorsens to new boatbuilding methods including edge-glued strip planking that he had seen in California before one of the Transpac races. “His work was so good and he was so keen to learn; he wanted to know all there was to know about building boats”, said Trygve…

1958 cherana by trevor gowland

His last Hobart was the 50th Race when sailed with John Keelty aboard Cherana, the Tasman Seabird he also built.

cherana 1959 sydney to hobart winner built by trevor gowland

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Trygve Halvorsen on the 8th Nov 2014

” On behalf of my fellow Directors, I regret to inform CYCA members of the passing of Mr Trygve Halvorsen, member of CYCA since 1946.” … John Cameron, Commodore

A ‘Celebration of Life’ will be held in the Freya & Morna Rooms at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia on Tuesday 18 November 2014 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm ”

http://www.cyca.com.au/club-noticeboard/2014/11/passing-of-mr-trygve-halvorsen-(1)

I had the pleasure of living aboard Solveig for a few years around the turn of the century while I was stationed at Pearl Harbor. She sailed so well and I miss everything about that boat from stem to stern. It brings a smile to my face to read about her rich history and to hear that all is still well in Hawaii.

Solveig is still floating here in Honolulu, Hawai`i. Her deck has just been refinished and she looks like a million bucks.

Trygve Halvorsen and Trevor Gowland designed and built my beautiful HG 31 cruiser-sailer yacht, TONDELAO in 1976. I acquired TONDELAO this year and motor-sailed her from Phillip Island Victoria to Middle Harbour Sydney. Under full sail and with her original BMC Captain Tempest engine purring TONDELAO reached a record speed of 11.4 Knots running from Bass Strait to Eden. My Brother, Jim proudly owns GALINI the twin-sister of TONDELAO. The HG 31 class was superbly built to sail the seven seas. Recently I was honoured to receive a telephone call from Trygve about the HG 31 class. He designed the hull and Trevor opted for the aft cabin layout option. I compliment both gentlemen on their skill and foresight in creating, designing and building a classic and durable design. John Vaughan TONDELAO T 02 9958-3246 14 Aug ’13

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Bluewater Sailboat – Freya 39

The Freya 39 is a double-ended offshore cruiser designed by Trygve Halvorsen, a member of Australia’s well-known Halvorson yachting family. She’s a seasoned sailor who has completed several circumnavigations. The original Freya, after which the Bluewater Sailboat Freya 39 is based, is noteworthy for being the only yacht to win the very tough Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race three times in a row (1963-1965).

The Freya 39 is a lovely Bluewater Sailboat with an upright bow, flush foredeck, and a modest trunk compartment aft. She is a cutter with a big sail area and a hull-stepped mast. She’s strongly built, with multiple layers of fiberglass in the hull and a plywood coring on the deck. The displacement is a hefty 26,000 lbs. Because the Halvorsens did not believe in modern racing hulls or the habit of using crew as ballast, she had a long flat-bottomed fin keel with a significantly cutaway forefoot and a keel-hung rudder. She’s a dry sailboat with a small cockpit designed for offshore sailing, and she’s more usually found with wheel steering rather than tiller steering.

• LOA: 39′ 3″ ft
• LWL: 33′ 9″ ft
• Beam: 11′ 3″ ft
• Draft: 6′ 0″ ft
• Sail Area: 744 sq. ft.
• Displacement: 26,000 lbs.
• Ballast: 11,000 lbs. (lead)
• Designer: Trygve Halvorsen
• Builder: Gannon Yachts

The Halvorsens were Norwegian immigrants and excellent sailors who constructed a lengthy line of fast, seaworthy double-ended sailboats that found tremendous success on the Australian racing circuit. Freya, a three-time Sydney-Hobart winner, was one of their most successful boats. The original Freya was a wooden boat, and later versions were manufactured in steel, but in the 1970s and 1980s, Gannon Yachts in Petaluma, California created the Freya 39 in fiberglass. Jim Gannon was the owner of the boatyard and a member of Freya’s initial racing crew. Later, aboard his own Freya 39 Golden Egg, he finished second overall and first in the large boat division in the single-handed Transpac race. It’s impossible to get information on how many Freya 39s were made since she’s no longer in production. The original Freya’s line drawings are held by the Australian National Maritime Museum and may be viewed online.

This Bluewater Sailboat’s 11ft beam provides for a pretty big and comfortable cabin below decks, but because she was also supplied as a kit boat, the interiors can vary, particularly in terms of finish quality. A main saloon with an enclosed V-berth up ahead, a double quarter berth aft to starboard, and a single quarter berth or workspace aft to port is typical interior arrangements. The nav station sits opposite the U-shaped Sailboats Galley under the trunk cabin.

In addition to being a safe and seaworthy cruiser, the Freya 39 is no slouch. Owners claim she can travel 200 miles per day and sail at speeds of 8 knots or higher. The original Freya’s racing results support this. Iron Men: The Halvorsen Story, by Randi Svensen, is a book about the Halvorsens’ wooden boats. According to Magnus Halvorsen, the Freya had the sense of a much larger boat and a very responsive helm. He claims she can hold a shy spinnaker longer than any other boat and full sail up to 30 knots of wind.

Quick Notes

The Bluewater Sailboat Freya 39 is not easy to find on the used boat market; its reputation as a performance bluewater cruiser means they are in high demand, but when they do become available, they are generally regarded as good value for money.

If you’re looking for a used sailboat for sale, check out the Bluewater sailboat data and specs to make an informed decision. Ocean Wave Sail has data for over 10000+ boats that can help you select one to meet your sailing needs.

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