Thread: Halvorsen
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Old 01-23-2008, 07:39 AM   #27
boogiediver
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Halvorsen

Guys, nice to see the Halvorsen forum active.

Crack open the bubbly... I have now finally taken delivery of my new Halvorsen Gourmet Cruiser 32! What a project it's been! Some heartache along the way, but tremendous satisfaction. We spent Saturday cleaning her interior and stowing our stuff away, and ripping plastic covers off the upholstery. Then I sat down and took a moment to reflect on the boat around me when I realised that she is AWESOME! Walt, sorry to rub it in, but my 2 foot extention of the aft cockpit has turned her into a floating patio!

Will be sure to post some pics in a week or two after I/she gets settled. Walt, you know my boat pretty well by now, and Jeff has also been the source of some useful info over the many months since I first contacted him for advice (right around the time I contracted the boat early last year). Jeff, my modified flybridge layout has also turned out real well, and makes the most of the relatively small real estate up there.... thanks for your measurements of about 10 months ago!

Walt, sorry about your swim platform. I think the GRP frame with teak grating looks sweet on this boat, but I saw a very similar platform design all in teak the other day (on a very different boat), and that looked very nice too. Will try to find that boat and take a pickie for you. Meanwhile, I suggest you hammer away a few more emails to the builder with a simple request for a quote for a new swim platform + shipping to USA. I'm gonna ask if mine has the same aluminum core. I note however that mine has slightly different shape to yours (I think) which may mean that a subsequent design change (as well as change in the shipyard) has also resulted in a different internal contruction. Will see, but I doubt I'll be that lucky.

As I once said, your prop looked visibly different to mine in the photos, and I guess that is after all due to different sizing, if not also different shape. After the builders had my prop adjusted during construction (it's now very different from the spec that is etched into the brass), I worried that my boat wouldn't perform as she should. Glad to say I got 13.8 knots out of her in a nasty chop during my final sea trials about 10 days ago. Yes, I might have an extra 40-50hp advantage over yours, but I also have the extra weight of a flybridge, etc and probably way too much DC artillery (I calculate about 330kg of batteries!). My point is that you should be able to squeeze an extra few knots out of yours... if you wanted to (I know you have been happy restriced to "normal" cruising speeds). I have no idea... what does a decent prop cost? There is always the option of buying Chinese and shipping it over!

I ordered PropShield from the UK and had that applied to my prop when the boat came out for final bottom inspection and some touch-up works. Unfortunately I was away for Xmas vacation at the time, so never saw what it looked like or if the boatyard guys applied it correctly. Will see how it all looks in several months time (or sooner when I go snorkelling), but instructions say it's good for only 6-7 months which sounds like a waste of time... perhaps I will look to your PropSpeed stuff next time. Let's compare notes in half a year! The PropSpeed versus PropShield Dance-off!

Enough for now. I'm on the road in China enjoying an unusually speedy internet connection. Hope to be back home on Friday evening so that I can spend all weekend on the boat putting her through her paces, and will no doubt have plenty more questions for you guys for ever and ever thereafter!

Ciao,
Mark
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