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Okahu Hard Stand meeting


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1 hour ago, Terry B said:

And even if he/she/they are doing a poor job - we still don't want to lose the hardstand do we?

Correct, even if some people don't like the current manager, we don't want to lose the hardstand.

It is a valuable resource for boat owners, and will be hard to reinstate once its gone.

 

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My Understand, which might not be 100% right:

The Yard and all assets are owned by Auckland Council (I guess actually the Orakei Local Board as local boards own all their reserves) and you get a bill from Auckland Council when you use the yard. 

STF (https://www.stfgroup.co.nz/ are contracted to run the yard on behalf of Council. They do a great job but seem to struggle with no investment in the yard from its owner. 

I've had nothing but good dealings with Jonny and the rest of the team running the yard. 

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Kev this is not the time or place to grind yer axe.

I'm going along and suggest anybody who has a boat, or plans on buying one should too.  Whatever u do, dont bring any axes or agendas other than putting a good case for the facilities continuing operation.

I hope St Chads has a lot of chairs and sandwiches.

As others have noted, personnel can be changed, but make no mistake - once the yard is closed we are rooted. 

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For the record, my / STFs involvement with the site is to purely provide plant and labour to manage the site on behalf of Auckland Council. Some of you may be aware that we invested in a new purpose and custom built 38 ton boat lifter and haul unit approximately 5 years ago, this was a game changer when compared to our old tractor and trolley system that was limited to 12 tons and allowed a greater range of boat types to be hauled.

For the past five years the hardstand has been operating under constant threat of closure (hence neither myself nor Auckland Council being able to commit any more resources to the site) via the Local Board who have jurisdiction over the site as it deemed a park. Some members of the board want to see the site turned into a park and a “consultation” process was entered into a couple of months ago. This process put forward three options:

1)     Status quo

2)     Shrinkage of the hardstand to make more “open space”

3)     Close the hardstand and replace it with a 24-million-dollar park (that neither the board nor Auckland Council have any funding for). The park option was selected…….

You can check it out here: https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/the-landing

 

Bottom line,  if people don’t get involved and help save the site it will be lost. Pier 21 has obviously just closed; they did 2000 boat movements a year. Due to the value of coastal land there will never be another hardstand build in the inner Auckland area, meaning to find an economic haul out solution you will need to take your boat to Whangarei and given the new Bio Security regs that are coming that require boats to have no more than “light slime” you will be doing the trip regularly!

N.B a recent report commissioned by Auckland Councils Bio Security team, Northland Regional Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has found that based on a boats being cleaned / fouled annually Auckland currently only has only 66% hardstand capacity to achieve this.

 

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1 hour ago, ex Elly said:

That is the strange thing. There is a park just few hundred metres away!

and a beach with a grassy foreshore.... maybe they simply don't want a noisy dusty work area on prime land IDK? but boats do require waterfront for haulouts etc so eventually traditional areas like Okahu Bay come under siege from the nimbys.

heres the zoning from the proposed plan change 78

image.png.58263be4594ce8631d473e42df7c4ac8.png

Property Header Address
 8-12 Tamaki Drive Orakei Auckland 1071
Zone/s
- Coastal
- General Coastal Marine Zone

- Coastal - Marina Zone

- Coastal - Coastal Transition Zone

- Open Space - Sport and Active Recreation Zone

 

 

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1 hour ago, ex Elly said:

That is the strange thing. There is a park just few hundred metres away!

The Okahu bay Marae want to restore the foreshore back to its natural state.Hence the mussel dumping thats been going on.Restoring or trying to restore what was there before europeans arrived,mussel beds/cockle beds. Moorings been removed etc. Was there not talk awhile back that the RAYC might have to move??

 

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I support efforts to restore the marine environment and Okahu bay has taken a beating over the years so it deserves some love. The problem is not removal of the hardstand, it's providing an affordable alternative in the city if they do shut it down. 

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3 hours ago, Psyche said:

I support efforts to restore the marine environment and Okahu bay has taken a beating over the years so it deserves some love. The problem is not removal of the hardstand, it's providing an affordable alternative in the city if they do shut it down. 

Joys of boat ownership. hence why the trailer boat market is buoyant compared to moored. Being treated as elitist.

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So, yachts over 6m barely make the margin of error.  Realistically, that would include quite a number of trailered yachts too.

And I think I see Psyche's point.  With ownership focused on managers and business owners, by definition moored boats are elitist.  In its non-pejorative sense.

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I've suspected a over representation of kayaks and SUPs in some NZ research, although survey companies always try and weight things to avoid that. Technically if you pay $10 at a camp ground to use their sit-on-top it's a commercial operation and shouldn't be included above, but even though researchers attempt to make that clear to survey participants I don't think it always clicks.

The important distinction between my personal boats types is that I have both a kayak and a yacht >6m, and I've owned them roughly the same amount of time. In that time I've spent exactly $0 on the kayak, whereas I've poured tens of thousand of dollars into local businesses for work, equipment, and materials for the yacht.

Like general aviation, it can appear like a rich person's game that takes up space that could be used for more profitable or public friendly things, until it's gone and the value is more apparent. The Wellington Aero Club was kicked out of it's old home years ago and barely survived, all to make room for a hangar for Peter Jackson's private jet that he sold a couple of years later anyway. When I walk through the airport I often run into Air NZ pilots who were instructors at Wellington and got their job at the airline based off the hours of teaching they did with the club.

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I'm not surprised that individual local boards would rather have a waterfront park than a hardstand in their bailiwick. But as pointed out by others above, the city needs to have the facilities somewhere, particularly if the various new biosecurity regs are to be met.

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