End of story for NZ Yachts boatyard

The New Zealand Yachts boatyard in Port Rd, Whangarei, is under contract for sale to an unnamed buyer, three years after the business went into receivership.

Returned wealthy ex-pat Allen Jones set up New Zealand Yachts to make super-yachts for the world's super-rich at the turn of the century. He started big by recruiting a large workforce and building an enormous boatshed.

The presence of Prime Minister Helen Clark at the opening bash signalled that the government had high hopes for the venture as well - but the business failed to take off.

Debts mounted and the skilled workforce, recruited from far and wide, slipped away.

The business went into receivership in 2009.

Allen Clark's son Damian and others had some success re-inventing the business as maintenance and refit specialists but world-wide recession saw a falling-away of business.

Cancellation of a contract that would have kept the yard going was the final blow.

Since then a former member of the management team, Martin Gleeson, has established two successful businesses on the site, Oceania Marine Ltd and Oceania Marine Coatings. He will remain as tenant under the new owner.

His companies offer full marine services, including refit, repair and construction. New builds are scarce at the moment but the yard is otherwise extremely busy, he says.

Two Fullers ferries, from the Bay of Islands and Auckland, are currently undergoing refits and an extension at the yard and a third ferry, also from Fullers Bay of Islands, will be hauled out shortly.

The property includes a substantial slipway and the boatshed, said to be the biggest in Australasia. The receiver for the property is acting for the vendors, an American finance company.