The opening on Monday of Nelson Marina’s new 110-tonne travel lift and runway is another step in Council’s economic strategy to grow Nelson as a marine engineering hub.
New Zealand is globally significant in few areas – best known are dairy and rugby – but we are also a major maritime nation. We have rights over 6 million square kilometres of ocean, 22 times New Zealand’s land area. It’s amongst the five largest in the world and is rich in marine resources. The opportunity for Nelson with our strong maritime heritage and central geographical location is being New Zealand’s centre of excellence for fishing, aquaculture, marine science and marine engineering.
The genesis of this new travel lift was the Nelson Marina Masterplan, signed off by Council in 2022. We wisely decided, after public consultation in our Long Term Plan 2024-34, to set up a separate Nelson Marina Company and board to oversee the developments.
This new Cimolai travel lift replaces its 30-year-old predecessor, increasing the boat-lifting capacity from 55 to 110-tonne and the beam of vessels from 5.6m to 8.5m. A major component was a new wider and stronger finger wharf. The extra beam is important for Nelson’s growing fleet of specialist boats supporting the aquaculture industry.
The next step in the development is the new boat yard and marine service centre for which we secured in January $12.89 million of Government Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) loan funding. The new boat yard will be completed in the first half of next year. The marina company this month sought private-sector partners for the marine service centre, inviting registrations of interest.
These marina developments are complemented by the recently commissioned 550-tonne Cimolai travel lift and yard at Port Nelson’s Calwell marine maintenance facility. The objective is to grow over 40 Nelson businesses and hundreds of jobs in the marine engineering sector.
My thanks to the Nelson Marina Board, led by Rick Herd, its previous CEO and now Councillor Nigel Skeggs, current CEO Drew Hayes and all the team on this milestone in developing Nelson’s marine industries.
