Fifty-metre American-owned yacht My Girl is temporarily high and dry in all her white gleaming glory at Whangarei shipyard Ocean Marine Ltd, where the vessel is undergoing minor repairs, routine maintenance and anti-fouling.
Oceania Marine yacht liaison manager Jim Loynes said the yacht had spent last winter in the Pacificand then headed down to New Zealand in early November to avoid the cyclone season.
She had undergone her major five-year American Bureau of Shipping survey while based in Auckland.
"Most of the mechanical survey had been done in the water down there but we were very pleased to secure the work for the haul-out part of the survey ," he said.
My Girl, which is owned by an American businessman, will head back up to the Pacific Is around the end of April.
Oceania Marine carries out a wide range of marine work, including building, re-fits and maintenance on both commercial vessels, yachts and motor-yachts and has a range of buildings where vessels can be worked on under cover, including the huge boat-shed said to be the biggest facility of its kind in Australasia.
Jim Loynes says the company is currently targeting refit and maintenance work. "There is still a lot of this kind of work around, although the new construction side of the industry has been going through tough times," he said.
Another overseas visitor, catamaran Lady Nada, left Whangarei over the weekend after undergoing a $200,000 fit-out with Whangarei boat-building company John James Ltd.
West Australian owners Sue and Bill McDonald bought the vessel half-finished in the Bay of Islands.
Company owner John James did the finishing work himself, as always contracting yard space for the work - he chooses not to have a yard, and hires work space and skilled workers according to the needs of each contract.
The long-time boat builder also runs a marine survey company, James Marine Surveys.
Lady Nada will have one last shakedown trip to Auckland before heading back to the Bay of Islands and on to Fiji.
