It's full steam ahead for plans to sink the decommissioned frigate Canterbury in the Bay of Islands - despite the group behind the plan having to stump up $50,000 to get her towed from Devonport.
The Bay of Islands Canterbury Charitable Trust last month won the tender for the Canterbury and plans to sink the ship in Deep Water Cove, near Cape Brett, as a diving attraction.
The tender document stated that the successful bidder would have to cover the costs of transporting the vessel to its final resting place, but the trust had hoped the Navy would tow the vessel for free - as it did when the HMNZS Wellington was given to a dive trust in the capital.
The Canterbury could bring $20 million to the local dive industry within "a couple of years", trust chairman Kelly Weeds said.
Mr Weeds said it was disappointing, but not a major impediment, that the Navy had decided to leave the towing job to the trust.
It would cost about $35,000 to tow the Canterbury north and another $15,000 to insure it.
Mr Weeds said the trust had budgeted for the expenditure, but it was still hoping that the Navy would "do the same for us as they did for the Wellington. And we are a bit closer to Devonport than Wellington."
Far North Holdings Ltd has stepped up to the plate with an undertaking to waive close to $80,000 in berthing fees when the Canterbury berthed at Opua Wharf for stripping.
Of more concern to the trust is that the formal handover of the Canterbury has been put on hold. The Navy now requires the trust to have resource consent to sink the ship first.
"It wasn't part of the original agreement that we have resource consent first, just that we had to be committed to getting it, which we have applied for," he said. "Again, it's not really too big a problem and won't stop us. It just would have been nice to have had it up here earlier."
The trust has applied to the Northland Regional Council for resource consent to sink the frigate.
Mr Weeds said apart from those two hiccups everyone had been "really supportive and positive".
The project is expected to cost about $600,000, much of which Mr Weeds hopes will be recouped from the sale of scrap metal and equipment stripped from the ship. If all goes to plan the vessel could be sent to its watery grave in June.
Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Barbara Cassin said the sale of the Wellington had exposed the Navy to "significant cost".
As a result the Navy had been clear from the outset that preparation costs, including towing, would be paid by the new owner this time.
A sale agreement would be signed about 10 days after a resource consent was granted, and the ship would leave Devonport three weeks later.
She said discussions with the trust had been "very, very positive, and apart from the delay caused by the resource consent process, the sale process has proceeded very smoothly".
Minor hiccups create delay for diving fans
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