The Nelson Marina has a new resident – Haumaona, the harbourmaster’s new vessel and it’s already been put to good use.
Haumoana, meaning sea breeze, has replaced a boat that was more than 20 years old, having previously been an America’s Cup boat and a Coastguard boat before it became the harbourmaster’s boat.
“She was well due for replacement for commercial use,” says harbourmaster Stuart Whitehouse.
The new vessel, built by local engineering firm GP engineering, has been refitted with up-to-date technology and safety gear, giving the harbourmaster better capacity to respond to his range of requirements.
The engines – two 250hp Hondas, will push the 10.2-metre-long vessel through the water at around 38 knots.
“But we’d be burning a lot of fuel and we very rarely need to get anywhere that quick, so she’ll cruise at around the 20 knot mark.”
The engines were already on the boat when it was purchased second-hand. They had recently been replaced so were effectively new.
“From a finance point of view, the value that we’ve got in the boat, it presents exceptional value for the ratepayer.”
The harbourmaster is tasked with looking after the area from Monaco to Cape Soucis, a distance of more than 40km.
“But we do find more and more that we’re going out of the Nelson waters to assist Tasman or Marlborough. We’ve had a few vessels over the summer that have sunk or hit rocks off D’Urville Island for example, and we’ll be able to assist.
“The other boat was fibreglass and much lighter so we had a wind limit in Tasman Bay of about 15 knots, we really shouldn’t be out there in anything more than that, but this will be able to handle a lot more.”
Stuart says this year has continued to see an increase of new boaties and sea users.
“From the smaller five metre vessels – there’s a lot of them, you come here on a Friday and the carpark is full, if you try to get a plumber or something in Nelson today I think you’ll be out of luck,” he jokes.
He says there has also been a massive increase in sit on top kayaks and kayak fishing has become increasingly popular.
“We’ve had three rescues over the summer that we’ve been involved with where they’ve capsized and can’t get back in, or the kayak sank in one case and they were left in the water.
“SUPs, especially inflatable ones, can get blown off-shore quite quick, so that’s really important with lifejackets and water-proof communications.”
Stuart says they are still seeing debris in the harbour following the severe floods in August.
“Just last weekend we cleared two big logs. When we get the higher tides it is still coming off the Boulder Bank and down the Maitai.”
He says a key priority is to get people to slow down, think before they head out, check lifejackets, communications and safety gear.
“We’ve had vessels here that have launched and forgot to put the bung in and suddenly its sunk at the dock here. We’ve all done it to some extent, we’re all human, when you’re out there. I used to fly paraglide and the instructor always used to say ‘it’s much better to be on the ground wishing you were up there than be up there wishing you were on the ground’.”
