My Boats
Tirrick: 18'6" Canoe yawl, William Garden design, launched 1986
Tirrick was strip planked in Western Red Cedar and sheathed inside and out with 12 oz plain weave glass cloth set in WEST System Epoxy resin. We trailed her up and down the coast to explore different estuaries. Top left photo shows her in Narooma, top right photo in Middle Harbour (we could fit under the Spit Bridge by dipping the gaff, going in and out with the tide as we had no motor). The bottom left photo shows her on the Myall Lakes. Tirrick now lives in Merimbula on the South Coast of NSW. Bottom right shows her in March 2018, well looked after and about to go to her third owner since 1991.
Blackwattle: 26' Chuck Paine Frances design, launched 2000
Blackwattle was strip planked in Western Red Cedar and sheathed outside with 750gsm Double Bias glass cloth and inside with 12 oz plain weave set in WEST System epoxy resin. We sold her to Lake Macquarie in 2008, but the new owner became ill and sold her to Brisbane within a year. The Brisbane owner unfortunately changed the name to Tom Thumb but he loved her, sailed regularly and looked after her. She was sold to Perth in 2016.
Britannia: Historical 18-Footer replica, launched 2002
The original Britannia was built by Wee Georgie Robinson in `19`19, raced for 23 seasons, and still exists, on display in the Wharf 7 building at the Australian National Maritime Museum (see second last photo). I built the replica over 15 months in 2001-2 at the old Halvorsen shed at Ryde (second and third photos). I've sailed her almost every Summer Saturday since then with a crew of 9-11 with the historical replica fleet at the Sydney Flying Squadron and I intend to keep going as long as the boat and I can take it. I documented the build in the book The Open Boat (see the home page) and a video youtu.be/kMaClFVOf30 Also see the Historical Skiffs Page on this site.
Serenity: 24' Lyle Hess Gaff Cutter, launched 2007, mostly built by my son Jordan
Serenity was strip planked by my son Jordan when apprenticed to me, in Oregon Pine on Spotted Gum sawn frames, sheathed outside in 750gsm Double Bias glass cloth set in WEST System epoxy resin. The choice of design was influenced by the fact that Lin and Larry Pardey who sailed the sister ship Seraffyn around the world in the 1970's stayed at River Quays Marina where I was the Shipwright Manager in 1991 in their next boat Taleisin, and we got to know them. Lin first saw Serenity at the Sydney Classic and Wooden Boat Festival in April 2016. Jordan's apprenticeship was finished before the boat and he left to join the bark Endeavour in Novia Scotia in 1999. He came home, worked a bit more on the boat every year or two, then went off overseas again. Tricia and I sold Blackwattle and went halves with Jordan to finish Serenity, which was launched in 2007 without rig or engine. I built the rig, Jordan and I fitted the engine and systems and we relaunched in 2010. We've sailed the coast and estuaries from Jervis Bay to Lake Macquarie since then, she's a magnificent little boat.
Sea-Mist: Halvorsen 25 from 1947, re-fastened and re-caulked 2016
I wasn't born when Sea-Mist was built, but like many Halvos she's been looked after. We loved the original interior in Queensland Maple, but after we purchased her in 2015 she needed re-fastening and re-caulking, plus a few sister ribs aft, so I did that in 5 weeks on the slip at Cottage Point Boatshed in March/April 2016. Andy Storey's boys at the Boatshed put in hydraulic steering as the push-rod system was stiff and unrepairable. We had some great times aboard with friends, family and grandkids on Pittwater.
Sea-Mist gets a makeover!
By 2019 Sea-Mist 's cabin structure and coachroof was looking a bit tired and in need of a repaint, and I needed to check out a couple of suspicious spots in the superstructure. The amount of work involved would have made it difficult to do afloat, so in August 2019 we hauled Sea-Mist out of the water at Bayview ramp with the very efficient Slipaway system used by Peter Maneros of Sydney Boat Transport (www.slipaway.com.au). You can see a video of the whole job "Halvo 25 Gets a Makeover" at youtu.be/1-RyMwobaxM
We took her to Sydney Wooden Boats at Mona Vale (www.sydneywoodenboats.com.au). Proprietor Simon Sadubin and I worked in a loose partnership for several years in the early 2000's and I knew I would get the best work available in Sydney there. The slipway cradle was easily offloaded on site and a temporary cover erected.
One of the main intentions was to investigate the possibility of stripping the cabin sides back to the bare Queensland Maple and varnishing them. Halvos always look better with good varnished cabins. But I was aware that there were a number of old repairs including some using Pacific Maple (Meranti) which is a poor substitute for Qld Maple (neither related to Northern Hemisphere Maples) so the first job on the boat was to strip the paint from the worst area first to see if the timber was good enough to varnish. It was clear within the first hour that there was no way this was going to be possible short of completely rebuilding the cabin sides in new Maple which was too big a job to be contemplated. The first photo below shows the number of different previous paint colours revealed during sanding.
One of the main intentions was to investigate the possibility of stripping the cabin sides back to the bare Queensland Maple and varnishing them. Halvos always look better with good varnished cabins. But I was aware that there were a number of old repairs including some using Pacific Maple (Meranti) which is a poor substitute for Qld Maple (neither related to Northern Hemisphere Maples) so the first job on the boat was to strip the paint from the worst area first to see if the timber was good enough to varnish. It was clear within the first hour that there was no way this was going to be possible short of completely rebuilding the cabin sides in new Maple which was too big a job to be contemplated. The first photo below shows the number of different previous paint colours revealed during sanding.
The second photo above shows the rot in the central windscreen pillar which I only discovered when my fingers broke through the thick paint when hand sanding! I feared the worst....it was likely to have travelled down the post, into the window frames and well as the deck plywood and possibly the deck beam underneath. However I dodged a bulet here....whoever had fitted the central pillar last had bedded it on a thick bed of Epiglue epoxy which acted as a completely impervious barrier and the timber under the epoxy was completely sound and new-looking. Naturally when I replaced the pillar with new Queensland Maple I fitted it on epoxy in the same manner. There was a couple of soft spots elsewhere on the cabin sides which I patched, and the eyebrow edge above the windscreen also needed to be finished (I had started that job afloat). All deck and cabin-top hardware as well as the port lights had been removed, The deck had been Dynel sheathed many years ago and a few patches were need there, but there was only a couple of spots where the plywood below the Dynel was degraded and needed new plywood scarfed in. Once the timber was all sound, preparation for a complete paint job began.
Simon and I and Simon's apprentice Joe painted cabin top and sides, I painted the overhead cabin top inside and some areas of varnish inside, Simon and Joe painted the deck. We all joined in again on the topsides and they applied the boot top and anti-foul. Naturally we were working from the top down. We selected Taubmans "Sea Spray" for the cabin sides, a light grey-green colour which isn't as nice as varnish but evokes the era in which the boat was built. Sea-Mist left the yard on the Slipaway truck 5 weeks after arriving and was eased back into the water faultlessly by Peter Maneros, leaving two very happy owners.
Sea-Mist Gets a New Engine.
Our Halvorsen 25 Standard Cruiser Sea-Mist was equipped with a Yanmar 3GM30 engine when we bought her 6 years ago, but earlier this year (2021) the engine became hard to start and conked out on idling, a bit of a problem when moving from forward to reverse. Sandy Wallace from Yachtech Diesel looked at it and found it was running on only 2 cylinders and blowing smoke out through the oil filler cap. While repairable, the cost of doing so was likely to approach a big chunk of the cost of a new one, so we bit the bullet and ordered a new Yanmar 3YM30 from Minard’s in Newcastle. This is the successor to the 3GM, and I’ve always been happy with Yanmars in other boats. I assumed that getting a similar engine would ease the changeover. However the feet are different and this meant that I had to modify the engine beds…...well modify was optimistic, the new feet had to be a full 85mm lower, and as the old engine beds were only 120mm deep they had to be replaced. They had been modified at least once before and I decided to start with new timber. You can see the whole process described in the video "Halvo 25 Gets a New Engine" at youtu.be/sYOhu14ZYCw
It’s a sign of the times that the only hardwood I could get at short notice in the 150 x 75mm section that I needed was imported American White Oak from Anagote Timbers in Marrickville, but it was beautiful timber. I trued up the top surfaces, machined them down to 120mm x 65mm and shaped and primed them in my workshop.
I dismantled the engine box and moved the aft bunk cushions, carpet and folding table to the fore cabin. Sandy Wallace removed the old engine and placed the new one in the back of the cabin out of the way with the boat still afloat. Four of the six bolts holding the engine beds down went through the hull, so the new beds could not be fitted afloat. We slipped Sea-Mist at Ian Begg’s Mackenzie Marine at Palm Beach (a great place for wooden boats on Pittwater) where the old beds were removed and the new ones fitted over a couple of days. Sandy Wallace fitted the new engine in place with the boat on the mooring, connected it up and ran it to check everything.
We took Sea-Mist for a spin on 26 June on a beautiful Sydney winters’s day with the motor purring along beautifully. Unfortunately Sydney locked down that evening and travel restrictions prevented us from even visiting the boat over the next few months. But now that we can resume a more normal life we have the confidence of a reliable motor.