Anitra V

Vessel numberHV000793

Sail Number77

Builder Lars Halvorsen Sons Pty Ltd (1924 -)

Date1956

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 11.73 m × 9.45 m × 2.9 m × 1.83 m, 9.15 tonnes (38.5 ft × 31 ft × 9.51 ft × 6 ft, 9 tons)

DescriptionLong distance ocean racing off the east coast of Australia was still a relatively new and developing post war sport with the Sydney to Hobart Race up to the 12th edition by 1956. For the Halvorsen Brothers ANITRA V was their fifth yacht (hence the “V” in the name) and the fourth boat built specifically to race offshore - in Australia, New Zealand and America - and especially in the Sydney to Hobart Race. The previous boats – SAGA 1946, PEER GYNT 1947 and SOLVEIG 1954 were each a development of their thinking about designs and their experiences racing those boats, however with the Lars Halvorsen Sons boatyard at Ryde in Sydney they had the facility to keep on building new boats to achieve a better model.

ANITRA V was different to each of the previous boats mainly because the hull construction was of lightweight Western Cedar timber strip planked with fewer frames and combined with Dynel fabric, a new material technology used to cover the soft timber and provide extra strength. The planking is 1¼ inch x 1 ¼ inch concave and convex edge shaped, edge glued and edge nailed with 3 inch copper nails so that each nail is fastened through 3 planks, effectively stitching the planks together with copper. The whole hull from keel to toe rails was sheathed with Dynel (then a new woven acrylic resin fabric) combined with polyester resin (Epoxy resins were developed in the early 1960’s). In the 1990’s the Dynel sheathing was replaced with triaxial fibreglass cloth in epoxy resin, making the sheathing much stronger on the then 40 year old boat. The solid teak deck and coach house on ANITRA V are quite traditional with a raised doghouse accommodating the galley. The fittings such as windows and handrails are also classic Halvorsen designs which can be found on most of the cruisers built at the Ryde yard, which of course was the main business of Lars Halvorsen Sons rather than building sailing yachts. Apparently, the Halvorsens had a large stockpile of old seasoned teak from the thick laid decks of the TINGARI, an old Clyde built square-rigger hulk, the teak purchased when the ship was broken up in Sydney. So the generous use of teak was a luxury they could afford.

ANITRA V was also a double ender (canoe stern) and like SOLVEIG had a spade rudder just under the canoe stern, well aft of the keel. Most yacht designs in the 1950’s had keel hung rudders so this configuration was still somewhat revolutionary. The original mast was deck stepped onto a cast aluminium deck-plate with a timber compression post below the deck onto the keelson. The original double spreader timber mast and timber boom were replaced in the late 1960’s after the mast came down off Port Kembla in heavy weather on the return run in a Montague Island Race. The current mast and boom are still those replacements from the 1960’s.

Magnus Halvorsen recounted the following in 2001.

“In 1956 we built ANITRA V, a 38 foot cutter to Trygve Halvorsen’s design. She was very successful, with second place in the very tough 1956 Hobart race. But for an error made by the CYCA measurer she would have won it by 20 minutes instead of losing it by 11 minutes.

She won the 1957 Hobart and took second place in 1958, and again in 1959. She took the CYCA Ocean Racing Point Score in 1959-60. As the only helmsmen in one Hobart race because of a crew reshuffle, Trygve and I did 2 hours on and 2 hours off for the entire race.
Our policy was to always take a rookie in our racing crew, preferably an apprentice boatbuilder, to demonstrate the need for a good construction job. In our own boats, on all but two occasions, we finished the race.”
In 1959 they did the Transpac from Los Angeles to Honolulu, then began the delivery sail home from Hawaii. Magnus was concerned about navigation on this passage as he had no confidence in the person who at short notice had come on board as a replacement navigator. So almost overnight he taught himself celestial navigation from a book, bought a sextant and the required books of tables and very soon proved to himself he was competent. This was the beginning of his long and successful career as an ocean racing navigator.

In its’ 60 years ANITRA V has had 4 owners but the last 2 have owned the yacht for 50 of those 60 years. After sailing her hard for four and a half years, including the 1959 TransPac Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii and back home across the Pacific, the Halvorsen Brothers sold the yacht to Jim Samson in early 1961. He did very well in his first Hobart race coming 4th in 1961, racing against the Halvorsen Bros in their new design, NORLA. Samson kept her and enjoyed her until 1966 when ANITRA V was sold to Garfield Barwick who owned it for the next 29 years.

Garfield Barwick ( later Sir Garfield) had in 1964 resigned from Federal politics and been appointed as Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. Whilst he had been a sailor of small boats he had never been involved in ocean racing in a bigger boat – ANITRA V was a new adventure for him – he was also by then 63 years of age. From the outset Barwick had a Sailing Master, Dudley Stewart, who took charge of arranging the boat and crew for the racing aspects of ANITRA V’S life as well as the maintenance of the boat. Dudley, a long time sailor of 16 ft skiffs, had a business servicing merchant shipping and was a marine engineer plus he was 20 years younger than Barwick so was well equipped for the long term task assigned to him. In the early years of his ownership the boat was campaigned regularly in the offshore series but never did very well in terms of racing results. They raced it in 6 consecutive Hobart races from 1967 to 1972 as well as in many of the CYCA offshore races in those years. After a gap of 22 years since the last Hobart Race entry in 1972 Dudley pulled together a crew (average age of 68) and prepared the boat for one final Hobart race - the 50th Hobart Race in 1994.

In May 1995 it was sold to is present owner, who had sailed aboard the yacht when his family were invited along by their friends, the Samsons. He fell in love with the yacht and over the years kept an eye on it until becoming aware that it was to be sold in late 1994. He successfully negotiated its purchase with Barwick and Dudley early in 1995. The handover by Dudley happened after the last race under Barwick’s ownership, the CYCA Veterans Race in 1995, with the new owner aboard as crew. After the race and celebrations as they had also won, the new owner took it back to its present moorings in Mosman Bay, with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.

Since 1995 ANITRA V has been raced both inshore and offshore. The offshore racing was mainly in the late 1990’s when some of the timber yachts still formed part of the offshore racing fleets. Offshore sailing for ANITRA V is now under more forgiving cruising conditions and schedules taking into account weather windows and forecasts.

Whilst not going back to the punishing race run to Hobart, in the late 1990’s ANITRA V competed in the Coffs Harbour, Mooloolaba, Southport and Lord Howe Island races as well as being regularly campaigned on Sydney Harbour with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

ANITRA V also now is a regular entrant in various special events such as the CYCA Veterans Regatta, Australia Day Regatta, RMYC Classic Yacht Regatta and the Amateurs Gaffers Days.

In addition to Saturday harbour and Friday Twilight racing with the SASC in the Classic Division the crew of ANITRA V are now enjoying some coastal and ocean cruising and in November 2015 returned to Lord Howe Island for the 13th Classic Australian Barbeque. Since then ANITRA V has participated each year in the Lord Howe Island event from 2016 to 2018. In January 2017 it was sailed to Hobart for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival and cruised to Bathurst Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania.

SignificanceANITRA V is a timber racing yacht built in NSW in 1956. It was built by Lars Halvorsen Sons in their Ryde boatyard for brothers Trgvye and Magnus Halvorsen and was designed by Trygve. It was the fifth of seven yachts they built in succession from 1946 to 1963,six of these they raced offshore, establishing themselves amongst the premier ocean racing sailors, designers and builders of their period in Australia. ANITRA V represents an era of yachting design in the mid 1950’s which was pushing new boundaries by innovative thinkers such as Trygve and Magnus Halvorsen to make faster ocean racing yachts.