The record set by Magnus and his younger brother Trygve (who died in November 2014) in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race may never be eclipsed. They won three consecutive races with Freya, in total achieving five firsts and five seconds in the 1950s and 1960s in Australia’s famous ocean race.
In October last year, Trygve and Magnus generously re-dedicated the Iron Pot Trophies they won for Freya’s victories in 1963 and 1964, adding to the 1965 trophy they had re-dedicated to the CYCA many years ago. It was, they said, “to help the Club celebrate its 70th race edition.”
The Halvorsen brothers (five all told, plus two sisters) came from a line of Norwegian shipbuilders and sea captains on both sides of a family that went back five generations, migrating with their parents and siblings to Australia via South Africa in 1925.
All the sons were to make their mark on recreational boating in Australia, but it was Trygve and Magnus who have left such a legacy to ocean racing with superb yachts Solveig IV, Peer Gynt, Anitra V and Freya, the only yacht to win three consecutive Sydney Hobart Races on corrected time and for which the ‘Freya Room’ at the CYCA is named.
Trygve’s great talent was in design, Magnus’ in celestial navigation, a self-taught skill. Magnus said he learned the basics of celestial navigation by taking sightings of the sun and stars from the foreshores of Waikiki in Hawaii. He was a great seaman, too, a gregarious giant of a man who could do everything at sea.
Both Magnus and Trygve contributed much to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s ocean racing organisation, becoming members in the early days of the Club. The CYCA recognised the brothers by inviting them to be the official starting team of the Sydney Hobart in 2007, an honour which I shared with them that year and, sadly, was the last time I saw them together. In 2012 Trygve and Magnus also performed the starting cannon honours when a small group of yachtsmen attended the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron luncheon marking 50 years since Australia’s first American Cup challenge with Gretel in 1962.
In fact, Trygve and Magnus were invited as the official starting team many times, including to fire the start cannon for the 70th edition of the race last year, recognising the 50th anniversary of their hat trick of wins with Freya. Magnus was not well enough and Trygve had passed away in November. Both were uppermost in many sailors’ minds that day when the blast was heard sending the fleet on its way was Niel Halvorsen, Magnus’ son who fired the cannon on brothers behalf.
After the Halvorsen family’s arrival in Sydney, their father established a small boat-building enterprise on the Harbour but when he died at a relatively early age his sons took it over, with Magnus and Trygve subsequently becoming joint owners of the expanding business.
During World War II, the Halvorsen’s became an important part of the war effort, building many vessels for the Australian and US armed services, including the well-known Fairmile.
As wooden boat builders they carried on the traditions of their Norwegian forebears and their skills in this medium were displayed as the builders of their ocean racers but also the America’s Cup challengers Gretel and Gretel II.
Both brothers built the Alan Payne-designed Gretel for Sir Frank Packer’s 1962 Challenge for the America’s Cup, with Trygve going on to be part of the shore team and then the sailing team. Later they built Gretel II for the 1970 challenge and re-built her for the 1977 challenge.
The Halvorsen brothers raced in the Sydney Hobart between 1946 and 1982, beginning with a second overall with Saga in 1946, following by a third with Peer Gynt n 1947 and a win with Solveig IV in 1954. Trygve then designed Anitra V, 38-footer double-ender that ‘went like a scalded cat’ downwind, with which they had a win in 1957 as well as three seconds, in 1956, 1958 and 1959.
Freya was the most famous, winning the Sydney Hobart in 1963, 1964 and 1965 as well as being a member of Australia’s first challenge for the Admiral’s Cup in England in which the team finished second.
Freya was a 38-foot 6 inch LOA double-ender with a vertical spade rudder and a long, straight keel, planked in Oregon and splined (wedge glued between the planks instead of caulking). She could carry full sail to windward in 30 knot and carry a shy spinnaker much longer than any of her competitors.
The transition from Solveig IV to Freya saw many innovative changes in hull shape, keels and rudders, and in yacht construction engineering.
The brothers won four Trans-Tasman races between 1948 and 1961 with Peer Gynt, Solveig and Norla and also competed in the Transatlantic Race
After sharing the 1966 Australian Yachtsman of the Year honour, Trygve and Magnus went their separate ways in yachting; Trygve sailing in several more Hobarts, while Magnus navigated the American maxi yacht Kialoa III when she set a long-standing Sydney Hobart race record in 1975.
Trygve passed away on 8 November 2014 at the age of 94, a remarkable combination has ended following their passing of Trygve and Magnus. They were Australia’s most successful yacht designers, buildings and ocean racing sailors of the 1950s and 1960’s.
Whenever ‘old salts’ get together to talk about ocean racing, Magnus and Trygve will be remembered in awe.
Our sympathies go to Magnus’ son Niel, his family and the extended Halvorsen family.
A memorial service for Magnus Halvorsen will be this coming Thursday, 30 July, starting at 11am at the Chapel at C3 Church, 34 Wakehurst Parkway, Oxford Falls.
Peter Campbell / John Cameron
