Eighteen moorings at Whakatāne Yacht Club face an uncertain future unless the district council moves to dredge the silted channel connecting the club's marina to the wider harbour.
The situation is already forcing skippers to plan their movements around the tides. Club captain Jamie Brunsden said his boat, One Love, can only leave the marina within a two-hour window on either side of high tide because of silt build-up. "We've had quite a few members move their boats to Tauranga because of this issue," he said.
At a recent low tide, One Love and other boats moored at the marina were sitting several centimetres out of the water. During extra-low tides, Brunsden said, the water can drop a further 400-600mm below that.
Under normal conditions the club dredges silt from around its marina poles roughly every four years, with the cost covered by berth holders' maintenance fees. The marina was last dredged in May 2020. The club is now unable to arrange that work because the barge it hires for the job cannot reach the site through the shallow channel. A dredging operation scheduled for November last year had to be cancelled when insufficient depth in the adjacent navigation channel prevented the dredging plant from accessing the facility.
Club members have been presenting a submission to a Whakatāne District Council meeting requesting the council dredge a 200m length of navigable channel between Otuawhaki (Green Wharf) and the club. The submission noted that the marina was built in 1997 based on assurances that channel access would be maintained. The council had carried out dredging of the channel over the past 20 years, and since 2011 the council and the club had engaged a single contractor to carry out the work concurrently wherever possible, delivering considerable cost savings to both parties.
The yacht club does not hold resource consent for navigational dredging. The council does. Brunsden pointed to the Whakatāne Harbour Fund as the right source of funding for the work. "We should use the harbour fund for harbour expenses," he said.
A Whakatāne District Council spokesperson said no decision had yet been made. "Staff are currently reviewing the Ports Operational Plan, including the financial implications of the plan. They will be presenting it to council next year," the spokesperson said.
