[1] Halvorsen Boats traces its roots to 1887 when Halvor Andersen, a farmer, launched his first wooden craft near Arendal in the south of Norway.
From 1925 through 1976 the family enterprise built 1,299 craft, the first, Sirius, from a slipway in Drummoyne and then from yards in Neutral Bay before moving to larger premises in Ryde.
Eight of their larger luxury cruisers; Penelope, Miramar, Nereus, Sea Mist, Silver Cloud, Steady Hour, Toomeree and Winbah were commissioned into the RAN as Channel Patrol Boats (CPB) and formed part of the 'Hollywood Fleet' in Sydney.
After World War II the company acquired a lease at Bobbin Head located north of Sydney in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
[5] On 9 April 2000, ninety of their classic boats held a regatta on the Hawkesbury River to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the family in Australia and Harold Halvorsen's 90th birthday.
However, Harvey and his son Mark Halvorsen continued to build boats by contracting to approved yards where they launched two additional new models, the Gourmet Cruiser and the Solo, a passage maker.
[8] A 134 ft (41 m) Kong & Halvorsen Motor yacht called Yecats appeared in the 1987 film Overboard starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.
The same boat renamed Attessa appeared in the 1993 film Indecent Proposal starring Woody Harrelson, Robert Redford, and Demi Moore.