Sydney Water Police
For many years the Halvorsen family designed and built a wide variety of utility vessels, pur- pose built for many varied business and ser- vices.
Mission boats for the Seventh Day Ad- ventists in the Pacific Islands, flying boat ten- ders for Qantas, a variety of 38,62 & 110 foot boats for the armed forces, and later the high speed launches for the NSW Water Police.
In February 1946, Halvorsens completed the conversion of two ex army 38’s and two 26’ which were destined for use by the Customs Department and the NSW Police.
AM 2432 was originally delivered to the Australian Army on the 10th December 1945 and was subse- quently converted and re-born as the very fa- mous ‘Nemesis’.
Named after the goddess of vengeance and retribution, she probably was the nemesis for the crooks and scallywags of Sydney Harbour and her exploits became quite legendary.
Offshore rescue missions were of- ten carried out in terrible conditions and she never faltered. Sold by the police in the late 60’s she was converted for private use and be- came the ‘Lorna VI’ berthed at the RMYC at Newport.
She was then sold to club members Greg & Nikki Roger who completed a massive overhaul including new turbo Volvo diesels.
She can still catch scallywags if she wants, at about thirty knots!
The replacement of ‘Nemesis’ was with the new 40 footers ‘Nemesis’ & ‘Alert’ both non flying bridge versions of the popular model and powered by 250hp Chrysler Imperial V8’s giving a top speed of 24 knots.
They joined the 1964 ‘Valiant’ & ‘Vigilant’ 26 footers which are still going strong in private hands. The famous 32’ ‘Viking’ model made its debut in January 1965 was also much sought after by the police with the first delivered in September 1966.
The well remembered ‘Fearless’, ‘William J Mackay’, `J.S.Scott’, ‘W.S.Childs’, and the last 32 built, the September 1973 ‘Len F. Newman’.
The photographic spread shows the great fanfare that surrounded the delivery of these boats and they offered valuable and longstanding service to the community.
The typical ‘bow up’ attitude in which they rode at speed was in fact, specially designed in by Harvey Halvorsen, which allowed the fine and deep bow to make an aggressive and purposeful slice into heavy seas.
They certainly achieved this result and most had achieved long and ar- duous sea miles and many engine replacements before being retired from faithful service.