The Silent Halvorsen: How Australia's Greatest Wooden Boat Empire Was Abandoned

The Silent Halvorsen: How Australia's Greatest Wooden Boat Empire Was Abandoned One thousand two hundred and ninety-nine boats. Eleven Fairmiles that hunted Japanese submarines. A wooden yacht called Freya that won three consecutive Sydney to Hobarts. Halvorsen wasn't just a boatyard. It was Sydney summer itself, the place where six cousins slept on the aft deck of a 36-foot cruiser chugging up the Hawkesbury. But in February 1961, an American company unveiled the Bertram 31 at the New York Coliseum for $15,900. Fibreglass. Moulded, not planked. Emma slid down the Ryde slipway on 20 June 1976. The last wooden Halvorsen ever built. Today, the Ryde yard is a $300 million residential development called Putney Wharf. The Bobbin Head boatshed is a marina reception. This is the story of how chemistry beats craft, and what that lost trade says about every skill Australia has stopped teaching. #Halvorsen #BobbinHead #AbandonedFactories #LostFactories #IndustrialDecline #AustralianManufacturing