If you were thinking of sailing across the Tasman and using your yacht as cheap accommodation during the 2021 Amrica's Cup in Auckland, think again. This report by Tom Dillane in the NZ Herald outlines the problems:
A dire shortfall of available marina berths in Auckland is forcing boat owners to “crawl over broken glass” to purchase long-term leases costing upwards of $400,000.
The other option for many desperate Auckland boaties is to shuffle their vessels across the city's different marina's for short monthly leases costing thousands of dollars.
And the problem is likely to get worse as Team New Zealand's defence of the America's Cup in 2021 nears.
Auckland marina broker Ken Davern said the cost of many berths had doubled in the last year, and there is a waiting list of three years to get a vessel into many berths for in-demand city central marinas.
“The demand is outweighing the supply. Some of the prices in Bayswater have doubled in the last year,” Davern said, who works for MarinaBerths.com.
“I know there's quite a few people who have been chucked out of the Viaduct, or Hobson West who have had to find new homes for their boats. Rents have gone up so high they can't stay there.
“Because there aren't any marinas around the only choice for those guys who were renting is to buy. If they get chucked out of the viaduct there's basically no where to go. They crawl over broken glass to pay the money to get the rights to a berth.
“There's a waiting list at Westhaven. If they were to put another 150 berths in there I could sell those before they even start their development.”
Compounding berth supply has been Team New Zealand taking over the majority of Hobson West Marina as a base for the 2021 America's Cup.
Read the full story at the Herald.
