Boating NZ July 2017

Like many New Zealanders, I suspect, I am sorely in need of a Hannibal Lecter mask to stop me chewing my nails. As I write, the drama of the event unfolding in Bermuda is shredding my nerves and the scars from the last America’s Cup are etched deeply into my psyche. By the time you read this it might all be over, but I will not get ahead of myself. Stepping back for a more objective view though, I am struck by the nationwide spirit of support, enthusiasm and solidarity for the six gents on the ETNZ boat. Even people who wouldn’t know a jib from a jibe have become caught up in the excitement, all striking the same fingers-in-mouth pose in front of the telly. I don’t know this…

AUCKLAND-NOUMEA YACHT RACE 2018 It’s less than 12 months to the start of the popular Auckland-to-New Caledonia race – an event last held in 2012. The 2018 race – starting on Thursday 31st May – is being organised and run by the Royal Akarana Yacht Club. This will be the 25th time the club has hosted an offshore race. The race is open to fully-crewed and two-handed yachts, as well as keelboats and multihulls of not less than nine metres hull length. Starts will be split based on handicap rating with the objective of finishing all boats at a similar time in Noumea. Australian fleets will start from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne at a similar time. Prizes will be awarded for overall line honours, IRC handicap, PHRF handicap, multihull, Corinthian…

Some 17 years after she was salvaged from a South Carolina harbour, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley – sunk in 1864 – has finally revealed how she was propelled. The sub secured its place in history by becoming the first submersible to sink an enemy warship, when it attacked the Union’s 1124-ton screw sloop USS Housatonic. This vessel had been on blockade-duty in Charleston’s outer harbour. Sadly, the Hunley’s glory was short-lived: she was too close to her deadly torpedo when it detonated – and she quickly followed her victim to a watery grave. All eight crew members died. The sub was salvaged in 2000, and two scientists have spent the past 17 years collecting the crew’s remains and restoring the vessel as part of a painstaking clean-up operation. That…

Kennedy Point Boatharbour Ltd has been given the go-ahead to build a new 186-berth floating marina at Kennedy Point in Putiki Bay, Waiheke Island. An independent panel of five commissioners delegated by Auckland Council granted the project resource consent in May after a weeklong hearing in April. The Marina will be located west of the existing SeaLink car ferry terminal at Kennedy Point and will be accessible from Donald Bruce Road to the south of the breakwater. It will have 186 berths, up to 19 pile moorings and 30 public day berths. It will also have two Swedish-designed floating breakwaters to protect the berths, floating pontoons piers and wharf, as well as a marina office, storage for kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, visitor facilities, café/public space, meeting room and a car…

Russia is developing a massive survey submarine for scientific research in the Arctic Circle in the hope of finding previously untapped natural resources. Fuelled by a nuclear reactor the vessel will be the largest civilian submersible ever constructed. It’s from the drawing board of the Rubin Design Bureau, responsible for the Soviet Union’s 1980s Typhoon-class missile submarines. Designed to conduct surveys using very low frequency active sonar for penetrating the sea floor, the sub will have two sets of wing-like sonar receivers that retract into its hull. Russia is hoping to find mineral and energy resources in areas of the Arctic that are being uncovered by global warming and melting ice. It has laid claim to large parts of the North Pole and Arctic circle in recent years. Able to…

ZERO BY-CATCH PLEASE Forest & Bird is calling on the Ministry of Primary Industries to set a zero by-catch target for seabird deaths after official figures revealed an estimated 1,000 albatross, petrels, and shearwaters were killed by surface longline fishing boats during the 2015/16 fishing year. MPI, the government department in charge of regulating fishing-related seabird deaths, has admitted at the same time that 2016 was a “bad year” for albatross and petrels. In a letter to Forest & Bird, Dave Turner, Director of Fisheries Management, wrote: “MPI acknowledges that 2016 was a particularly bad year for seabird interaction in the surface longline fishery and included some well publicized incidents of high mortality and non-compliance with mandatory mitigation measures.” These bycatch figures show there is an urgent need for MPI…