Westhaven Happenings

[John B 106]

Credit where credit is due, the open day was terrific. We were supposed to go away for a long weekend ( which is why I wasn't going to make it),but the weather and forecast, the open day and the Townson day , put me off.

My wife is not wonderfully happy with me for not going sailing but.... you gotta do what you gotta do.

That was fun. The Townson event put on by the Tino rawa trust was exceptional and a real tribute to Des. I still have his number in my phone , I should have sent him a text to see how he's doing , and to say how good his boat( and boats) look.

[Beccara 25]

That's quite the leap. There is a major difference between a massive inconvenience for no real security gain and willfully polluting the sea

[Westhaven Team 7]

John B, I am glad you enjoyed the Open Day - we did too - and thank you for taking the time to write about it here.   I have been away for a week but will post photos from the open day soon. It was a fun day. 

 

Rehabilitated - Westhaven's live aboards are  housed within a specific area that was built as part of the Y Pier development. The berths feature dedicated sewer pump-out with backup pumps and 5,000 litre tanks ashore that feed direct into the city sewer systems. That means vessels can connect their holding tanks continuously while they are berthed.  

 

Sundreamer, with regards to security tags and yacht clubs, we are working with Westhaven’s yacht clubs and have set up a system to cater for access by race crews on race days. It sounds like this might be useful for you - please talk to your club. Additional tags are available and this is detailed on our website : http://www.westhaven.co.nz/westhaven/using-the-marina/security/

 

 

[Westhaven Team 7]

Hi, we take water quality very seriously and boats are not allowed to discharge into the marina. Please give Kevin Lidgard a call in the marina office on 0800 MARINA and have a chat with him about any questions you have about liveaboards or anything else. You can also email him on info@westhaven.co.nz attn Kevin. Cheers, The Westhaven Team 

[Deep Purple 511]

Well I'm pretty miffed (at myself mainly). I got an email a few weeks back saying that the pin codes are going and tags will be needed on the UVXY piers servicing the piles. I went into the office take my old tag back since Wild Oats is sold and they said to keep my old tag. It was a few days before takeover so I assumed wrongly that it would work on G Pier only.

Today, already late to get on the water thanks to the stupid marathon I discovered the pin codes had been blocked and of course my G Pier tag was at home (probably wouldn't work on U anyway) (edit: it would have)

When they changed G Pier, they gave a few weeks cross-over of both, in fact right up to last weekend both worked, but it was cold turkey on U pier

What a hassle getting people to the boat. One we are stuck with unfortunately.

 

On the bright side, for race days especially, crew might have to get used to the idea of turning up on time. There's only so many times I'm going to be walking down to the gate each day.

[erice 732]

thankfully someone took pity on our repeated + useless code punching

 

and swiped us in

 

bit hard to wave and be seen from the piles

 

when you are still in the car park

[madyottie 82]

I guess that means I was the only one to have a pleasant experience at Westhaven today? Late afternoon I went down to have a look at the other 8.5 setups. Someone just happily let me in, no questions. The new security system obviously works a charm, just ask the guard who gave me directions! 

 

First time I've ever set foot on those jetties.

[Beccara 25]

If you walk around like you should be there then people including those in security will act like you belong there.

 

This type of system is security theater as madyottie has demonstrated so clearly. Whilst security is needed the money spent on this system would have been better spent on security camera's and lighting rather than inconveniencing everyone for no real security gain

[Dambo 44]

On the bright side, for race days especially, crew might have to get used to the idea of turning up on time. There's only so many times I'm going to be walking down to the gate each day. Oh bugger.

Yeah, I've been wondering when the last of my collected codes would become redundant.

 

The tag system still sucks,  

Finally are opex charges being reduced with fewer security personnel now required as the wave of drug dealing, prostitution and theft abates?  I'm sure we'll be told that the thefts etc have stopped.  Although I was talking to another boat owner who's pretty sure that his electricity is being stolen - spent a month not plugged in and still received a power bill - who're the thieves now?

 

On the topic of prostitution, when does one go from just being a boat slut to being some sort of sailor of  'negotiable endeavor'?  A beer or rum usually suffices, does it have to be money?  

 

Speaking of getting paid, while much of the world was caught up getting excited over the thugby ETNZ won at the China Cup International Regatta.  

[Deep Purple 511]

Ha, I've solved the problem, quite simple really. No longer an issue.

[Black Panther 1,581]

What - boltcutters???

[Deep Purple 511]

No, nothing destructive or compromising security. Will try it this weekend.

[Dambo 44]

No, nothing destructive or compromising security. Will try it this weekend.

I'll still try to be on time for a change.

[Freedom GBE 27]

Very easy to get in any gate. Pretend to be busy outside the gate loading a trolley and sooner or later someone will come through the gate and then simply slip in behind them.

[raz88 96]

Interesting to see that as well as recently separating out the electricity charges, and stopping supplying hoses, westhaven have emailed today to say my berthage fees are rising too.

 

All in a few months - building walkways and administering complicated gate code systems must be expensive....

[k88 7]

latest SOFPerf, show westhaven is running at a loss

[Westhaven Team 7]

Hi Motorbike,

 

 

Did you attend our meeting for BEU holders (owners of berth licenses) and the public Westhaven Forum on Tuesday? We had a really good turnout of about 100 people and were able to explain a lot of this quite transparently and in detail, and it received some very positive feedback from both renters and BEU holders. 

 

OPEX is in fact not a profit making exercise for the marina owner. It is an exercise in cost recovery and the marina is run by the team with a strict eye on managing spending, whilst maintaining and improving the marina. 

 

User pays power and water was bought in for two reasons: one was to make it fairer. The majority of consumption was by a small proportion of boats, but the low consumers were paying the same amount as the high level consumers. The other was sustainability - we wanted to encourage people to think about their use of power and water, like they do at home. We suspected there was a lot of wastage occurring. 

 

You could definitely think that being an inner city marina, we’d be maximising the charges, but the fact is that relative to other marinas in Auckland, Westhaven Marina is actually priced at about the average level, both in terms of rentals, and OPEXes, across most sized berths. Opexes are amongst the lowest in Auckland. With this, we have a large waiting list of boats keen to come in to Westhaven - the marina is operating at full capacity. Affordability is a big and constant focus for our management team and has been for several years under Tom Warren and Kevin Lidgard. 

 

But whether we are talking about food, fuel, insurance or marina expenses, it’s a fact of life that costs go up every year -  which is what inflation is. We were able to very slightly reduce OPEX this year thanks to the introduction of user pays. Without user pays, you’d actually have noticed an increase in OPEX this year, despite our best efforts. For those in the Extension Trust there were further savings, because of the addition of 70 new berths with the Y Pier development. 

 

Something we are quite concerned about is the upcoming changes to health and safety legislation. We flagged this at the meeting too, because there will be some increased compliance burden for all marinas as a result of this law change. 

 

We have a big focus on communication and transparency, and that is why we organise the meetings, publish an annual report, and communicate on our website and emal newsletters - and through Crew.org.nz too. 

 

This is as much detail as I am willing to go into on an online forum but if you missed the meeting and would like to have a more detailed conversation about this, please feel free to send me a message with your contact phone number and we can talk further and answer your concerns. If you are a BEU holder you'll have received your annual report by now, but it's also up on our website:  http://www.westhaven.co.nz/westhaven/the-forum/annual-report/

 

Best regards,

 

The Westhaven Team 

[raz88 96]

So opex went down, yet berthage is still going up?

[all fired up 6]

"We have a big focus on communication and transparency, and that is why we organise the meetings, publish an annual report, and communicate on our website and emal newsletters - and through Crew.org.nz too. "

 

Have had a look through the latest annual report but did not see any financial reporting.

 Without real financial performance being reported upon, the report is more of an annual magazine.

 

a.f.u

[marinheiro 352]

I understand more than 60% of berths at Westhaven are occupied by renters, and looking around the greater Auckland área, the only marina charging a higher monthly rental appears to be Orakei.

So unsure about the claim "priced at about the average level", at least in the case of rentals.