SITE 18 IS ALL GO!
Resource consent for Site 18 in Westhaven has now been granted and Orams Marine has scheduled building work to commence mid-year.
Site 18 will include an 820-tonne travel lift and will be ready to lift large vessels from the end of 2020.
This is a win for Orams Marine and the New Zealand marine industry, with economic benefits expected nationwide, says Peter Busfield, Chief Executive at NZ Marine.
NZ Marine congratulated Orams Marine, Panuku Development Auckland, Auckland Council and all those involved in progressing the Site 18 development.
Boat Show buzz
When this year’s Auckland On Water Boat Show opens on 3 October in the Viaduct Harbour, visitors can expect to experience a large number of sea trials and see a huge selection of boats on the water.
This year’s show – the 21st – will see a slight shift in location within its Viaduct Harbour home.
“On-land exhibitors will stretch out from Eastern Viaduct to Karanga Plaza,” says organiser Stacey Cook, “and making a return will be the exceptionally large number of on-water vessels available for viewing.
“It’s on the water that visitors can see and experience how a vessel moves and performs. It’s a crucial part of what we offer visitors and it allows boatbuilders and brokers to show their boats in their element.”
This year’s event will see a strong emphasis on boats available for sea trial – interested buyers will be able to get onboard and head out onto the Hauraki Gulf to experience vessels underway. This gives show visitors a unique way to discover new boatbuilders, and experience marine equipment like engines and navigation gear to help complete the decisionmaking process on a boat purchase.
With 2018 gate figures showing a 12% increase in visitor numbers, organisers are looking forward to seeing another strong show this year as an indicator of the health of the market.
“Our remit is to showcase the marine industry and help businesses flourish, so hearing from exhibitors that the market felt strong, and they received good quality enquiries at the 2018
show is exactly what we want,” says Cook.
It’s the country’s biggest on-water boat show and showcases more than 200 domestic and international marine businesses, including dozens of vessel manufacturers and boat brokers.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.AUCKLAND-BOATSHOW.COM
OBC SUPPORTS GULF PROTECTION
The Outboard Boating Club (OBC) – the country’s largest recreational boating club – has added its support to a proposal aimed at protecting at least 20% of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, a move which will hopefully reverse dwindling fish numbers.
The proposal comes from the Hauraki Gulf Forum, a statutory body which promotes and facilitates integrated management and the protection and enhancement of the Hauraki Gulf. It’s aimed at seeking protection of at least 20% of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and establishing restoration efforts for 1000km2 of shellfish beds and reefs.
“As regular users of the gulf,” says OBC Commodore Bill Berry, “our 2000 members are well aware that the health of the Gulf is at risk and that more must be done to protect the environment of the gulf for our families and future generations. Consequently, we support this decision by the Hauraki Gulf Forum and look forward to working with them.
“Club members young and old have been enjoying the Gulf’s beauty and resources for 60 years, and as a significant step toward protecting the fish resource we have changed the basis for all our fishing competitions to measuring by length rather than weight.
“Measuring and photographing the fish encourages competitors to return the fish to the water, preserving the healthiest breeding fish of popular varieties as snapper, kahawai and kingfish.” For more information on the proposal, visit https://ourauckland. aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2019/05/hauraki-gulf-forumvotes-to-increase-marine-park-protection/
SYDNEY to AUCKLAND RACE 2021
The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron are partners in a new 1,250nm Sydney to Auckland Yacht Race, scheduled to start on Sydney Harbour on 30 January 2021 and finish in Auckland.
The Category 1 race will coincide with and help the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron celebrate its 150th Anniversary and enjoy the 36th Americas Cup. The race is open to offshore cruising and racing yachts, superyachts, ocean racing multihulls, as well as incorporating a rally for cruisers.
“A race between these two sailing meccas is exciting, and the historic rivalry between us will only add to draw sailors from both sides of the Tasman Sea, as well as internationally, to compete,” says RPAYC commodore Michael Lockley.
“Having recently been at the helm for the 150th Anniversary of the RPAYC, the opportunity to join our great friends at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron to celebrate theirs is going to be fabulous. The two clubs have a great history of friendship, there is an enormous synergy in our ethos as well as our sailing programmes.”
The Cruising Rally is for those who don’t enjoy eating freeze-dried food on the rail of a yacht at 25 degrees. There will also be a two-handed division – sure to garner many entrants, as shown by the popularity of the recent two-handed round New Zealand and round North Island races.
RPAYC will be organising seminars in aspects of boat and crew readiness in the build-up to the race and has plenty of experienced skippers on hand to assist and advise anyone looking for help.
Auckland’s 2021 programme will be diverse. Yachts from around the world will gather, including a fleet of J Class yachts, superyachts, international classics fleet, as well as the Prada Cup series and America’s Cup Match.
THREE-PEAT FOR HERBERT
Seventeen-year old Sean Herbert has made history by becoming the first person to win the New Zealand Starling Nationals three times in a row.
Sailing for RNZYS, Herbert pulled off the three-peat in a regatta that came right down to the final race at the Taipa Sailing Club.
Will he try for four in a row? He thinks his size might be a limiting factor for the small class of boat: “I think the oldest competitor this year was 61 so you can stay in it as long as you like, but I’m over sixfoot now and weigh 60kgs, so I’m on the brink of being too big.”
TRANS-ATLANTIC BY BARREL
A 72-year-old adventuresome French pensioner – Jean-Jacques Savin – has successfully floated across the Atlantic in a bright orange, 3m-long plywood barrel he built himself.
Savin set off from the Canary Islands on Boxing Day last year and after 127 days and six hours at sea arrived at the tiny Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean on May 2. During the 2930-mile journey the barrel was slowly pushed west by ocean currents.
The voyage was inspired by a French doctor, Alain Bombard, who in 1952 did a similar solo trip from the Canary Islands to Barbados in an inflatable boat. He’d survived on raw fish and saltwater.
Despite his age, it seems Savin has had plenty of experience living in deprived conditions – he is a former military paratrooper and has previously crossed the Atlantic four times (by yacht), has ascended Mont Blanc in 2015 and has swum across France’s Arcachon Bay four times.
470 GOLD
Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox won gold in their first World Cup Series regatta – and first event in Europe – at the recent Genoa event.
The pair finished third in the men’s 470 medal race and, crucially, were two boats ahead of Zangjun Xu and Chao Wang of China who started the day in first, to win the event by one point. That gold medal came on the back of the silver won by Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie and bronze picked up by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the 49er on the first day of medal racing.
SCHOONER BATTLE
The 128-foot Naema – built in 2012 – won May’s inaugural Capri Classica Regatta in Naples, an event that attracted four giant schooners.
The regatta – the first round of the Schooner Cup Series – was created by the International Schooner Association in conjunction with the International Maxi Association. This Capri event will be followed by September’s Monaco Classic Week and Les Voiles de St Tropez, where the winner will be awarded the Schooner of the Year Trophy.
Naema – inspired by the 1938 Alfred Mylne design Panda, raced against Mariette of 1915 (a 138-foot 1915 Nathanael Herreshoff schooner), Orianda (85-foot 1937 Dahlstrom staysail schooner) and Puritan – a 126-foot 1930 Alden gaff schooner.
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the regatta is the start protocol. While most yacht races start with boats jostling for position sailing to windward on a short line, the schooners resort to the ancient practice of starting at anchor with sails down. This was commonplace in schooner racing in the 19th century and even featured in early editions of the America’s Cup, an event won by schooners up until 1876.
Starting from anchor is a natural handicap system, as the biggest yachts can take up to 30 minutes to get underway, but are faster under sail than the smaller yachts that could weigh anchor and be sailing in as little as 10 minutes.
The regattas are structured around ‘schooner-friendly’ courses, given that these vessels all herald from an era when the principle was famously “gentlemen don’t go to windward”.
MOANA 56 ASIA BOATING AWARD
The Moana 56 has been awarded Asia Boating’s ‘Best multihull motoryacht over 50ft’ against some stiff competition. The vessel was also nominated for ‘Best Asian-built yacht’.
With a hull designed by Auckland’s Stimson Yacht Design and Naval Architecture and the interior/exterior designed by Wong Yacht Design in Shenzhen, China, it is a testament to the team’s drive for quality and attention to detail.
Chris Wong studied Transport Design at Massey University, Albany, in 2012, specialising in marine. Christian Stimson was judging the final year design projects, including Wong’s. On returning to China, Wong set up Wong Yacht Design and began collaborating with Stimson Yacht Design & Naval Architecture on several projects.
Wong is a partner and CEO of Moana Yachts, which plans to move production from the Xinlong yard to its own production facility with resin infusion, CNC milling machines and robotic sprayers to further improve quality standards.
TRANSITION TO NEW SAFETY SYSTEM COMPLETE
On May 1 the last of almost 1200 commercial operators transferred to the new Maritime Operator Safety System (MOSS).
“It has been a successful, five-year process,” says Maritime NZ Deputy Director, Compliance, Pelin Fantham.
MOSS was introduced in July 2014, and Maritime NZ ran a gradual transition to help make the change from the old safety system to the new as smooth as possible for the industry.
On May 1, Fantham presented Penwarden Holdings Ltd with its certification in a small ceremony on Whangarei Harbour. She congratulated the company for completing the transition and bringing its fishing vessels Bilyara, and the brand new Karearea, into MOSS.
“MOSS was designed to make it clear that an entire maritime operation, not just the vessel, needs to be examined to ensure all the safety risks are identified and managed,” says Fantham.
“As a result, it has helped to improve safety in the maritime industry and has strengthened the relationship between Maritime NZ and operators.”
STABI BOSS IN HALL OF FAME
Stabicraft owner Paul Adams has joined the ranks of illustrious marine industry movers and shakers, inducted into the Hall of Fame at the recent Hutchwilco Boat Show.
Adams started Stabicraft in the late 1980s and has nurtured it into one of New Zealand’s most important marine businesses. It has built more than 13,000 boats and is represented by over 25 dealers in five countries. It employs over 100 people in the 5,000m² Invercargill factory.
After working as an apprentice coach builder for a Bluff-based engineering company, Paul almost didn’t get into boatbuilding at all. Asked by a couple of commercial fishermen to produce an aluminium pontoon boat, he and his mate declined, thinking it was a crank idea and wondering “why would you want to do that?” When the boat ended up being built by someone else and was “not a success”, the fishermen again approached the pair and this time they agreed.
Before long, they had quit their jobs, moved to a “backstreet workshop” and were building boats full time. In 1987, they built their first rigid-hulled aluminium chambered boat, a Stabicraft 3.5 called Ally Duck.
The company has long been an exhibitor at the New Zealand Boat Show and, in 1998 won its first Boat of the Show Award, Fishing Boat of the Show, for its Stabicraft 630HT.
In 2007, Paul was made a member of the prestigious New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business. Under his “Design-Led” approach, Stabicraft has won a number of National and International awards, including a coveted International Red Dot Design Award in 2016.
Multihull Solutions' Ocean Voyager
Multihull Solutions has expanded its representation in the commercial day charter industry, facilitating the sale of a remarkable Ocean Voyager 78 catamaran to the new South Sea Sailing operation in Fiji.
The new Ocean Voyage catamaran is the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere and has a capacity to accommodate 150 guests with flexible “high-end” day and dinner cruises from Denaurau to the Mamanuca Island.
The vessel features a water slide and its shallow draft allows passengers the chance to sail to previously inaccessible sand cays, reach reefs and stunning beaches in the region.
South Sea Sailing anticipates the Ocean Voyager 78 cruises will commence commercial operation in June 2020.
Multihull Solutions is working closely with Ocean Voyager to promote and sell the Ocean Voyager day charter catamarans in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and other regions across Asia and the Pacific.
The Ocean Voyager day charter catamaran range are specifically designed to service a niche in the day charter and resort sailing industry, offering commercial day charter professionals, destination managers and incentive agencies a sound and reliable platform to deliver a sailing experience to their clients with an economically proven operating model. These boats are internationally recognised for their superior build and finish quality as well as their reliability and their durability.
Ocean Voyager has a range of models to match the specifications and operating requirements of operators with models including the OV43, OV53 OV64 and OV78 offering passenger-carrying capacities from 20 guests up to more than 150.
The catamarans are widely renowned for their expansive area and stability, performance at sea, easy access to engines, and reduced operational and maintenance costs.
Further information on Ocean Voyager catamarans or a range of other commercial day charter vessels available in the Asia Pacific region can be obtained by contacting Multihull Solutions on +61 (0) 7 5452 5164, emailing info@multihullsolutions.com.au or visiting www.multihullsolutions.com.au
