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180 minutes would be cutting it fine even just to do a midweek yacht - How many yachties are going to get towed tonight?

Or what happens when you go for a mid week sail and have a few beers, then decide "Best not drive home, oh wait i need to move my car or it will get towed by the morning..."

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180 minutes would be cutting it fine even just to do a midweek yacht - How many yachties are going to get towed tonight?

Or what happens when you go for a mid week sail and have a few beers, then decide "Best not drive home, oh wait i need to move my car or it will get towed by the morning..."

Easy, pop the car in the unrestricted parking area on the western side.

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Westhaven , we know why this parking situation has come about , its a reaction to city workers taking all the carparks and walking to work. With all the development in wynyard quarter etc its only going to get worse.

But this isn't right, towing boaties who are invited to go out on a boat, that isn't right and furthermore its not within the intent of the westhaven marina development in the first place. The marina is there and was put there to foster the sport of boating, not make life miserable for boaties.

This solution to the initial problem of the city workers parking there during the day is worse than the problem was. It isn't right.

 

I suggest to you that you consider crew tickets. Seasonal Crew tickets that are issued to the berth holder or tenant and entitles 3 or 5 cars per boat( say)to park without harassment in the white areas. That way , genuine boat crew and guests get to leave their cars for extended periods , while they are out on a boat ,as they should be able to.

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i dont know a better solution, but the current solution sounds pretty average.

Basically, the sumamry is that to prevent workers parking there, you are preventing ANYONE parking there.

Maybe the solution is get rid of carparks, cause if sailors cant park there, whats the point? (not a serious suggestion BTW)

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So why did they allow the ASB to build their office (and no doubt all the other future buildings) with NO CARPARKS for some 3000 staff when there is no effective public transport that goes to Wynyard Quarter. Even Pants Down Browns stupid train goes nowhere near it. Yet another example of council ineptitude.

 

Maybe a good start would be to quit the robbing towies and go for clamps. At least then a call to security would see you on your way without chasing down your car from a third party only interested in extortion. Turning up in your wet weather gear would probably convince them you're not an office bimbo from AirNZ

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Though I like the idea, I suspect a lot of "crew" would spend a lot more time at work in Wynyard Quarter than actually sailing...

 

 

Thats true, but it makes a more equitable option than this new /current policy.

Seasonal crew tickets for the white spaces managed by the berth holder. Signs to the effect that the carparks are for use of people using the westhaven area.

if necessary then nab a few abusers walking off to work, give em a warning ,put the owness on them , ticket repeat offenders. Just like in a shopping mall carpark etc .

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Are you sure that westhaven isn't solving a problem that doesn't actually exist? Office workers only park in westhaven during office hours during the week, generally when no one else is there. Is this a case of a solution looking for a problem ?

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yeah it was a problem twist. Carparks don't clear out fast enough in the evenings to allow crew to find parks in the twilight racing.

 

Weren't Westhaven investigating some sort of plate recognition system which could be used to solve some of this?

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The parking issue raised is just the front door to many future issues that will arise from the intensification and developing mixed use of Westhaven that is now taking place. Wether it is the Sky Path , the commercial development or the board walk, the Westhaven marina facililty will no longer be the predominate area of use that boaties that have enjoyed for many generations.

A "marina within a marina" is the managements new mantra for Westhaven and us boaties had better get used to the new some new neighbours, that being the public.

JB has suggested a plausible alternative to mitigating the impact of the publics use of the available parking.

There is/was a long established ratio of 1.8 carparks per berth that applies to the consent to operate the marina.

This ratio is now being further eroded by stealth and should be of real and great concern to every berth holder within the facility.

Maybe the marina management would now like to comment.

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I'm sure you are right Priscilla. I notice in their newsletter they say that 0.8 carparks is standard best practice for marinas. So that is what we will get. They also say that they need to maximise return on investment which says it all I think.

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Here is a clear shot of the sign on the entry to the carparks on the South side of the marina.

In my opinion this style of sign/warning notice is extremely user unfriendly.

 

Marina sign.jpg

 

I think marina management should also put a user friendly sign there too. Saying something like this:-

 

"If you and your crew are going out in your boat for more than 3 hours visit the marina office to get some long term parking permits."

 

Do reckon they will do something constructive like this?

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We don’t like towing cars either.

 

We are soon to start trialing a new system in the northern part of Westhaven, called TrafficEye that should resolve most of the issues that you have raised here. This is a license plate recognition system, with barrier arms. It will enable us to flexibly let vehicles park in to the Marina. For example, you can let us know the license plate numbers of Wednesday night crew, so that they can get in on Wednesday nights specifically. On a day there is a big function at the RNZYS, for example, we can let vehicles in, but we can also keep the space clear for owners-only at peak times like public holiday days.

 

Most people are telling us that parking is much easier now than it was couple of years ago, and this is due to better management of the carparks. It is a fact of life that we need to operate in a compact central city space. We already have exemptions for Wednesday night parking advertised as you enter the carparks on signage. If at other times, you need to be out on the water for longer than 3 hours, if you don’t have a carpark permit, and if you can’t arrange a temporary one with the office, then please consider carpooling with your crew mates, or walking in from an alternative carpark.

 

Twist asked about piles coming out. This decision was changed some time ago, after feedback came in from the sailing community showed concern for the effect of this on entry level boating. At present, some of the pile moorings are coming out to make room for new marina berths, for which we have waiting lists. The future of the remaining pile berths will be determined down the track, based on how well utilised they are by the boating community. In 2013 we also dropped fees on our smaller berths, to help make keeping a boat on a berth at Westhaven more affordable, and we had great uptake as a result of this. It is worth noting here that pile mooring occupancy is trending downwards and even advertising them here on Crew.org.nz as a low cost option with many of the benefits of a marina berth, has not increased take up much. We would like to see them used.

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Hi Westhaven. Thanks for your clarification about the piles. Is it your intention to take out the piles for the big boats and leave the smaller ones? I am in the unfortunate position of having a boat that only fits on an 18m berth (boat plus bowsprit). The piles are affordable at $430 a month but a marina at nearly $1500 a month is not. If the piles come out I literally have nowhere to go. Can you clarify your intentions please ?

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I note that my requests for clarification regarding the required parking ratio required to operate the marina and its consent requirements to operate and what future planning is in place to accommodate the "do it yourself" hardstand requirements have been conveniently side stepped by the marina management.

What exactly has driven the change in parking priority with the marina facility.

Can the berth holders within the marina facility look forward to any certainty regarding not being held commercially captive to those two enterprises that service the needs of those of us that choose to do our own out of water servicing.

My specific request to the marina management is that in these times of change that the customer is not left behind.

Based on past example I am left with a sneaking suspicion that our interests as berth holders is being severely compromised.

I personally advocated strenuously for Westhaven marina to fold back into public ownership and would like to table a timely reminder to those that are essentially employees of the berth holders that Westhaven is first and fore mostly a marine recreational park and its founding intentions were to service the needs and requirements of the boating public.

It is an entirely different matter to shoe horn in a bunch of Johnny come lately public at large expectations to access the foreshore.

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