Business North October 2021

| 15 MARINA INDUSTRY Whitianga Marina Marina set for upgrades from page 13 The development of the new ‘F Pier’ will provide 29 large berths that range from 18 metres to 22 metres. PROTECTING YOUR INVESTMENTS We offer a full Fixed Fire Suppression and Hydraulic Hose Service. We supply and service all fire extinguishers and fixed fire suppression systems. We can also repair and manufacture any hydraulic hoses required for boats. Certified fire suppression systems approved by insurance. Servicing the entire Coromandel 0274 985 796 admin@fireandhose.co.nz www.fireandhose.co.nz Specialists in boat repair and maintenance, H&M Pascoe has made integrity and quality craftsmanship its trusted hallmarks throughout its long history servicing the commercial and recreational boating sectors. Based in Whitianga, the successful business was founded in 1953 by Howard Pascoe and in 1977 was joined by his son Mitch, a quali ied and highly skilled boat builder and exterior marine painter. When Howard retired, Mitch took the helm of the business and was later joined by his wife Phyll who assists with the administration side of the growing business. The majority of H&M Pascoe’s projects come from the Whitianga Marina where the company has three small workshops/storage sheds along with a 16-metre purpose built movable shed, allowing for all-weather work. The company also uses the Whitianga Marina sheds when clients request. Some of the work is carried out a short distance away at the company’s boat yard in Dundas Street, which has a fully equipped woodworking workshop, an 8-metre shed to house trailer boats, as well as a shed capable of housing 12-metre vessels for major repairs. “We mainly work on boats between 10 to 15 metres,” says Mitch. “However, we’re currently working on a boat which is 20 metres long. We’re reliant on the boats being the right size for the H&M Pascoe Boat Builders Ltd marina’s travelift limit. We also work on trailer boats and even Jetski’s and campervans occasionally.” While branding itself a boat repair and maintenance business, with two highly quali ied boat builders in the team —Mitch along with Karl Storey — H&M Pascoe does quite a lot of boat building work including itting transducers, installing bow thrusters and repairing damaged or worn teak decks or rebuilding from new. “It’s a very important part of our business and very rewarding in job satisfaction,” explains Mitch. “Our core business though is doing maintenance and repair work including antifouling and Propspeed, ibreglass repairs, paint touch ups and plumbing. Many of the add-on components such as hatches and portholes have a inite life before they start to leak. Repairing or replacing those items to keep the vessel’s interior dry is another of our key services.” With three quali ied marine painters including Mattias Toia, we can prepare and paint hulls, complete vessels or areas speci ic to the owners’ requirements. “We also repair damaged and rotten areas of vessels that need to be restored. Once this work has been completed we can repaint the entire vessel or the areas that have been repaired.” The hard stand manager has been with the marina for sixteen years and Dave reckons is New Zealand most experienced travel lift driver. With boats getting bigger and some exceed- ing the 35-tonne capacity of Whitianga’s travel lift, some boats go to Auckland or Tauranga for cleaning and defouling. But Dave says a slipway will be included with the new Whitianga Waterways residential development, which will make a difference. “There will be over 1000 boats in that devel- opment when it is completed and there will be a lot of big boats there too, so they will also need to build a hard stand for those bigger craft.” One thing Dave is very proud of is the mari- na’s Clean Marina certification, a New Zealand certification which he says is extremely hard to achieve. “We get checked twice a year from Waikato and Bay of Plenty Regional Councils to ensure we’re free of marine pests and that general standard of cleanliness at the marina is to a very high standard.” Since Covid, Dave has seen unprecedented demand for larger boats and the marina is about to undergo two major upgrade projects to meet that demand. In May this year the marina’s existing fuel dock will be replaced with new fuel lines including petrol. “Currently we can only fill a maximum of two boats at a time. “Our new fuel dock will have four eight- een-metre diesel berths enabling four boats to fill up at once along with two petrol boats. So potentially six boats could refuel at once. There are an increasing number of boats with bigger petrol outboards, so we want to be able to meet that need.” The second major upgrade is the devel- opment of the new ‘F Pier’ complete with 29 large berths that range from 18 metres to 22 metres in size. Dave says the larger boats will be the Aus- tralian built Riviera type, worth in the region of three to four million dollars each. The project, which is expected to cost in ex- cess of $10 million, involves the construction of a new breakwater wall 18 metres beyond the existing wall, which will be demolished. The 29 new berths will then be built inside the new marina boundary at 90 degrees to the existing berths. “We’ve received our consent for the new development and have just secured enough sales in the last six weeks to push the ‘go button’ on the project. “We’re just awaiting final costings from Bell - ingham Marine, and Hopper Developments who are doing the Waterways development. “Hopefully we will be able to start the pro- ject mid-winter, with the goal of finishing the project in time for summer 22/23.” While Dave has been the Whitianga Marina Manager for the last three and a half years he has lived in Whitianga since 2009, having previously held a 25-year career as a profes- sional yachtsman sailing overseas and Europe and has done all the major races around the world.