New Zealand’s Capital Shuns Superyachts
Yachts are being turned away from Auckland in New Zealand because of the lack of deep water dockage suitable to accommodate them. So runs the story by Christopher Adams in the newspaper The New Zealand Herald.
Recently super yachts have been unable to use the city as a port of call. The 66 metre Triple Seven and the 60 metre Vive la Vie being just two of the quoted examples un able to use Auckland because of a lack of decent berths, which says the article is losing the city potential business and star attraction.
Even the Mayor, John Banks has acknowledged the problem: he said the new Supercity should live up to its name by building a superyacht marina by the city's Bledisloe container terminal.
And, in a letter obtained by the newspaper, one captain has it says written to Auckland yachting industry representatives, decrying as "a shame" the city's inability to accommodate more superyachts”
"For my next call of Auckland I hope berthing options will become a little better for yachts as they get bigger and bigger," the skipper said.
"It is a shame Auckland as a modern cosmopolitan city has just one 60m berth and not the facilities to accommodate more ships of this size or bigger.
"It would be easy to extend Viaduct Harbour. The location and scenery are perfect and I am sure more owners would base their 'toy' in the City of Sails or come for a visit."
Boats larger than 50m have to be berthed at Ports of Auckland facilities such as Princes and Wynyard wharves, which the industry source said was a far from ideal situation because of security concerns and lack of privacy.
"They haven't upgraded the Viaduct for so long and there are more boats over 50m touring the world these days."
In addition, the four berths in Viaduct Harbour for big yachts up to 50m in length were almost always fully booked.
"It's the most frustrating thing we've ever come across. All these boats want to come to New Zealand and there's nowhere for them to go."
