Yes the Halvorsen hire fleet has now been sold to private buyers, we have a few on our marina, and they are a credit to the new owners, a lot of TLC goes into those boats to keep them up.
You may be interested to know Peter, being a proud Clipper owner, that the largest Clipper hire fleet used to operate out of the marina at Akuna bay.The marina was called Clippers Anchorage in those days, and as I understand it the clippers were commissioned there and sold under the name Clipper's, after the marina. The hire fleet was run under the name 'Skipper a Clipper', with the name subsequently being sold off and part of the hire operation transferred to Church point in Pittwater.
The largest, and best maintained Clipper operation continued out of Akuna Bay, particularly under the legendary operation of Bob and his partner. Bob was a retired merchant seaman.This was at about the time I had a business at Akuna Bay.
Bob's idea of customer service differed from the traditional view, in that if you mistreated the boats you did so at your peril.I remember one classic confrontation where I walked into his marina office and he had a young bloke up against the wall, threatening all kinds of verbal and physical abuse, much to his friends dismay.
His crime was, being a young first year mechanical apprentice, he had changed the governor setting on the hire boat to get more than the 1750rpm Bob set for each boat, the engine duly overheated.
Bob gave them an amusing and quite frank anatomical description a mammal's reproductive capacity when they asked about their boat bond.
Last I heard of him he moved to New Zealand to toughen up the All Blacks.
There is no longer a hire fleet that runs out of Akuna Bay. The present owners, part of the Macquarie group wanted too much rent for the last owner, so he up and left taking the boats up the river to Berowra Waters.