Whangarei marine servicing industry executives and community leaders are ecstatic that billionaire Graeme Hart has brought his unfinished 77-metre superyacht north for work expected to bring millions of dollars into the city.
The move by the Auckland-based businessman - the wealthiest New Zealand resident on the NBR Rich List last year with an estimated $6 billion fortune - reverses the dismay felt when Whangarei missed out on a similar deal in 2011.
At that time construction of the superyacht had run into problems in Chile and when the shell was brought to New Zealand for completion there were hopes $50 million worth of work would be done on it at Port Nikau in Whangarei.
That proposal fell through and the craft, known simply as U77, languished in Auckland for about 18 months until Thomson Towboats hauled it up to Whangarei on Thursday.
Yesterday it was moored near the Ship Repair yard where the billionaire's previously biggest boat, the 51m Ulysses, which cost $85 million when built in 2003, was on the slip for what company official Nick Eilering said were "minor repairs and some antifoul on its backside".