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Marina fees hike


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Speaking of building supplies prices, did you hear the RNZ report a couple of days ago? Lots of anti-competitive practices make our stuff three times the price it should be. Some people import windows from Germany because it's cheaper, then the supply companies blackball them. My guess is that the government has deliberately run down the part of the public service that used to be responsible for bringing these cowboys to book.

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 The Cost of Building one from scratch is now horrendous. RC is the number one killer. It can costs millions and take years easily measured by decades, which means substantial investments with no return for a substantial amount of time.
Then there is he building of such. If dredging needs carrying out, then once again, RC enters the Pic and it can be further staggering costs. And guess who's making the coin from all that???
   For established Marina's, it money for nothing much more than holes in the water and many are substantial cash cows for their owners.
 

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The building industry is totally shot , prices have been run wild since gst came to start with , and compition went out of the window timber yards don't have to compete , its cost plus , no hope for new home buyers , saving is hard ,first home sellers it upwards all the way , WHEN there is a crash , and it will happen , It won't. Change , just pay or don't build , windows are the second largest cheque in building a home for a small square area , , the council inspections are set out in Such a way a builder can't progress quickly and when he wants an inspection it's 10 days from booking , there is three inspections in cladding a house wich can be don't in two weeks ,, inspections drag it out for weeks , just an example of how it is , then all your other contractors have inspections , and on it goes , I need a walk

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I imagine the builder pays for council inspections? Why wouldn't the industry offer to pay for more inspectors to meet their marginal cost of waiting? I must say I was horrified by the recommendations of the Rules Reduction Taskforce saying builders should sign off their own work.

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Several years back, before we headed to Auckland, the Marina costs sky rocketed here in Marlborough. Port Marlborough were impossible to deal with and almost bully'ish. The basic attitude of, if you don't like it, leave. It was reported that there was a 3yr waiting list to get into Waikawa. Havelock was about 12mths. Although many of us in Havelock Marina scratched our heads as to how they arrived at the figures and we didn't see what they were. When we received our letter to inform us of the next increase, we were looking at $5800/yr for a wooden finger. Port Marl was replacing all the wooden ones with concrete and the concrete was another 1K on top again. So we had to cut the lines so to speak and get out of the Marina due to cost and found a swing mooring to go to. then a few months later, we headed to Auckland. But as we were in the process of leaving Marlborough, I wrote a letter to Port Marlborough as to the reasons why we pulled out and how Auckland had a much cheaper and easily accessible alternative with Swing moorings. It fell totally on deaf ears, which I expected. I was told I was speaking dribble in a more politically worded reply. Well it turned out in the few months following, I was not the only one that left. Plus, we have an association representing us here now. Originally set up for the Swing Mooring owners, it also took up representing Berth Holders as well.
This topic today made me take a look at the latest news letter from them. They have applied pressure on Port Marlborough and managed to keep fees fairly static. Although I think it could also be due to many leaving not only the Marina's, but Marlborough completely. In fact, MBMA picked up a theme I had included in my letter. They had also seen the letter and commented to Port Marlborough on many points in it. Here is an interesting comment made by MBMA and similar to what I had said.
 

 

around 80 empty berths in Havelock the loss in spending with local businesses, at about

$8,000 per boat p.a. is probably well over $500,000. This
should be of great concern to Council.
This is an example where berth price reductions in Havelock seem essential to attract the Nelson
boats back.
Interestingly, Havelock has nearly died. Two major Boat repair yards have gone now. This leaves just two, from four. The Chandlery shop in the Town is no longer. Many other shops in the town have closed the doors. It is really sad.
Havelock had always been cheap to rent a berth. But when Port Marl too over, they wanted to bring the costs in line with Waikawa/Picton. Yet even Waikawa has had substantial price increases.
In Waikawa, a 15m marina berth that cost $1,022 p.a. in 1987, now costs (2012) $7,896
p.a. An increase of over 500%. Launching ramp fees are also amongst the highest in NZ. We
pointed out that berth holders, who are Marlborough ratepayers, not only pay their rates but are also
subsidising other Council activities through the high fees they pay, contributing to Port Marlborough’s dividend to Council

 

Please note those figures were 2012. I was trying to find upto date prices, but I see they no longer list them on their website. The only price list I could find was 2013.
     Oh yeah, one thing that used to really annoy me, if you had a 12m boat. They had no 12m berths available. But plenty of 14m berths. So instead of charging you at 12m, they charged you the 14m berth cost. To me, that's wrong. It is not our problem if they cannot supply, so people should not have to pay for the length don't use. Especially when their charge rate is based on X dollars per metre/day.
Oh and there was other one of renting out your Berth if you were away for a few weeks. I though I would get at least half the cost back and they would charge half the cost etc. Well no, I got a sum total of $12. They charged out the full amount of the short term day rate to the boat using my berth. I only ever let them do that the once.

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The Marine village here is administered by the GHMVRA (Gulf Harbour Marine Village Residents Association). We are the users and managers. Boats wishing to come into the marina must have insurance (same as most NZ marinas) and there are some terms and conditions, (You cant live aboard)  but we try to keep it friendly to boaties. 

 

Anyone wishing to get full details can contact the Marina Manager;

Steve Law

GHMVRA

Facilities Manager

021 457 268

manager@ghmvra.co.nz

 

And any issues will be bought to my attention, as I'm the waterways convener :-)

 

MJ, if Terry's one does not work out, Steve will know what's available and at what prices.

 

Matt

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I didn't use the word Government. But when I do I mean the politicians who have a parliamentary majority which allows them to change laws. They (in this case the National Party and its mates who they governed with) passed a law relaxing the building code to such a ridiculous level that we ended up with leaky buildings. They were warned at the time (we'd already seen it in South Africa from memory). So I don't think we can blame the public service for leaky buildings or the inspectors who were forced to work with the shonky code. The buck stops with the Government.

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Look going back a few years , this plaster systerm that was floating around , polystyrine crap , Hardi backer trowel on stuf , these products were let into the industry with out a full trial ,back then apprenticeships were a thing of the past , no body wanted one to train , plaster companys trained there applicators in two weeks , but these products did not work till painted or sealed , so the plaster is not water prof Applicators were short , so builders were given installation manuals to install the crap , a lot of plasteriors were untrained just out on there own , and designers had no idear how to design with this stuff , this product should had been on test panels in a paddock several years before going on a house then the white collar pros step in , apprenticeships 36 months then your out on your own , flash wheels , liminited liabillity. Companys know Alls , I did 5000 hours have trained 3 apprentices , the last came third in NZ awards why do we have leaky m homes , not enough training , not Long enough training , products need our building heads to test these , Control products , if it does not fit out it goes , we need to be selective inn all products used in a home Not what pictures of products show. One timber for all framing , tanilized only one timber , and the price is below $5 .00 fixed ,a dozen of cladding types , same with roofing , eves are put there for a reason TO KEEP WATER OUT eves stay , minimum size 100 mill , why train builders for only 36 months , build a house with a cavity in the walls , answer , because the are not trained long enough to know how to build water tight , Cut scribes correct , back seal windows It goes on , this is why we have leaky homes , I need a walk

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I hate to see this subject taking a different path, but...
I don't think the Wiki info is accurate.
Myjane is closer and nails it with the comment of the Eves in the older designs. It's not the plaster, or paint or whatever coating. It's not the fibre sheeting or Insulated sheeting. It is the design, as in how all these materials were to come together and work. Pure and simple, it was a failure in the design, not just one or two products used in the design, but the entire coming together of absolutely everything.
 

 

The same public service and Inspectors that are allowing the use of substandard materials in many works, some of which are huge public ones, still today.

 

Chinese steel, it's NZ's next leaky building.

I kind of agree, but I was of the understanding that it was the steel that was the issue. But this is not the case. The Media has been pushing the "cheap inferior Chinese Steel" headline and so I had the view that we had Steel that was poor quality and would likely break if placed under a bit of stress. But that is not the case. At first I was scratching my head as to how that could be the case. I mean, Steel is steel really. Sure there will be tensile strengths etc and numbers it has to meet, but making steel is kind of like making a a Caking. You add all the ingredients and you either get it right and it looks like a Cake, or it is a complete failure and doesn't look like a cake. The fact of whether it tastes OK is not so much important, providing it rose and baked to look like a nice Cake. Anyway, I digress.
So what it turns out to be is in fact something much scarier and truly serious. I was listening to an Engineering Company owner in an interview and he made the comment that as a result of the steel (in the Auckland motorway project) being imported, he had to lay off 5 of his top Fabricators. That picked my ears up and I thought how does cheap Chinese steel become a problem with his Factory and Workers being laid off. So I did some digging. It turns out it is NOT the steel itself. )OK so it is possible it does not meet a standard, that is not the issue) But the issue is, that entire Structures had been fabricated in China and shipped here ready to use. The Construction companies making the overpasses etc, then simply put them in place and poured the concrete. What the "Poor Quality"part is is in the Welding. Apparently the Welding not only does not make the Standards, but in many cases, it is so poor that welds were actually breaking. This is Serious. Any of the Engineers here on crew know that we have a stringent standard/certification to adhere to in NZ when welding structural components. The certification has changed form over the years, but when I did it, it was NZ 4711 and each position of welding was a separate exam. So this is serious. Far more serious than the steel itself not being good. I mean, even weak steel is still likely strong enough to hold concrete together and take loads. But Welds are what hold the structure together. A weld has to be the highest quality of the lot. If entire Structural components are what the problem is, then we have a problem far far greater than any leaky building. We are talking about the possibility of complete and catastrophic failure of a Flyover or what have you.
 

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This is unreal Wheels. Check out the attached file. This is a report from a few years ago, but it shows how bad Chinese products can be, and that the QC procedures need to be extremely thorough. I have imported EXCELLENT products from China (loadcells) in the past that were better than their German made equivilents, but the training and QC that went into the factory making these products was led by an American educated Taiwanese engineer, and he was very stringent with his rules and processes.

What was the engineering company thinking?

China_hydrotest_failure.pdf

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Fair enough on that vessel failing but I could also point to a NZ built vessel that failed in much the same manner a few months ago.  No doubt about it though quality can be an issue but most of the boilers made these days are from China, Thailand or India.  The issue is mainly around false independent testing houses issuing test certs that mean nothing or are downright false.  

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