The original Halvorsen Freya was built as a challenge, to win the Sydney to Hobart race.
It did so, successfully, 3 consecutive times, because of the unique design, which allowed it to excel in both light air and in strong winds, and in all seas.


It is known and loved for it’s rare combination of being
both FAST and SEA KINDLY.

This custom built version has been made to withstand anything,
with it’s Corten Steel hull and Stainless Steel superstructures.
These materials also require minimal maintenance, due to their rust resistant properties.

EVERYTHING on this vessel is engineered to be DURABLE and to require little to NO maintenance.

It is purpose-built to sail the high latitudes and to be able to remain in remote regions with the requisite provisions and spares so as to be completely SAFE and SELF SUFFICIENT.


Horst Diegnamm,
who was employed by Halvorsen for it’s Luxury River Cruisers,
worked on all the Corten Steel and Stainless Steel on this vessel,
to create
CUSTOM MADE
elements
for everything from the hull and other structures, to individual eyelets, stauncheons,
down to his iconic and recognisable bow roller.

Both the aft and central cockpits and doghouses feature his Stainless Steel workmanship.
Inside and out, you will find handmade steelwork, designed with great care, to purpose.

The owner/builder, Michael Foley had a personal fascination with
Aviation and Maritime history and made it his life’s mission
to ensure that this vessel had the greatest features of all that he had learned.


He has also created a warm and comforting interior
with exceptionally beautiful and hard-wearing timber features.

This is a rare find.


These are sought after yachts.


And this one, in particular, is an exceptional version.

This is a
Go Anywhere Vessel
​that has been
Built to Last.

The story so far...

Meaning of MEROPS

We are the current custodians of “Merops”.

Before you Google it....Merops has several meanings.
It is the subspecies of a rare and colourful bird.
It also means “unseen star” and has links to Greek mythology.
And it is the name of a star in the Pleiades system.

For us, the moment we laid eyes on it.....
Merops, made us think of Sea (mer) and Ops,
as in Navy Operations.

That’s because it did strike as us as being a hybrid of a navy destroyer and a sailboat, especially with the tower power featuring a massive 72 nM open array Radar, which one rarely sees except on Military vessels, Rescue boats or Superyachts. Before we were even told why her original owner had built her, we knew she was built to go to Antarctica.

We were looking for an ADVENTURE and for a boat that could
take us ANYWHERE and allow us to stay there for as long as possible. MEROPS certainly fit that bill.

We are both Musicians, composers and Artists.
We are both Young at heart. And we felt we had at least a good decade between us to get out there and be capable of sailing to wherever our hearts desired.

MEROPS stirred our imagination
like no other boat
we had seen, sailed, or owned before.

Both of us have spent significant periods of our lives on the water. My name is Rachael. I grew up around the islands of PNG and later the Phillipines, California, Coffs Harbour and Sydney. I was always around boats and watercraft in general.

Louis, my long term friend and companion for 20 years, has been sailing since he was a small child, and has owned and sailed several sailboats in his 60 years, including a Southerly 23, an Adams 40, a Top Hat 25, and more recently, a Van de Stadt 36.

In recent years we had been looking for a true Deep Water Cruiser, and after much research, we had a very serious checklist of what we felt were essential criteria our next vessel had to meet.

Foremost, for us both, it had to put safety first, and provide a liveable off-grid environment for remote adventures.

And after Louis had lost his Brazilian built Van de Stadt in Tropical Cyclone Debbie (in 2016), we redoubled our efforts to find the TOUGHEST boat we could.

So, after this seemingly unfortunate event, good fortune was to smile upon us.

We saw this Halvorsen Freya.
We researched it.
It was the proverbial “Sailor’s Dream”.

As we suspected, there were very few of them around, and rarely, ever, was there one for sale.
Even rarer....a Corten steel build.

To our great surprise, this particular vessel came to market,
just as we began looking again for our “ultimate adventure boat”.

With THIS boat, we could do ANYTHING.

Even our surveyor said, that this was the only boat he had ever been able to write down in black and white that “could sail anywhere, in any conditions”. And with that, he included his testimonial to that effect in our survey. He even went as far as suggesting it was indeed a “ship”.
(See SURVEY page).

He said this boat was genuinely priceless, because of it’s bespoke nature, and the materials, and because of Horst Diegnamm’s Artistry and the Halvorsen Freya Prestige.

That was the first time we realised that we had indeed found ourselves the rarest of treasures.

So, in August 2017, after our survey, we undertook a clean, antifoul, refaring and extra epoxy protection of the hull, on the advice of the surveyor...which he suggested would be a one in ten year job that would protect this rare asset for ourselves, and any custodians to come.

And the journey began.....

Ever since we took charge of Merops, the looks, the questions, the sharing of knowledge from those who know about this rare design and it’s history have never stopped. And we have had many a skipper declare boat envy, and wished they had seen it in the market before we did.

And we are reminded frequently, by our own sailing experience, about why this boat is so very special.


It has to be seen and experienced to be appreciated.


For the moment, I have only a few meagre photos. But I shall endeavour to share more, and also a walk around video or two.

The ceiling above the midship Double bed. Every piece of wood has been hand turned and lovingly placed throughout, to create interesting aspects everywhere you look.