Historic boat may become dive draw

By Rosaleen MacBrayne

TAURANGA - A tug which has spent 20 years on dry land in Tauranga may return to the sea as a dive attraction off Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty.

The now-derelict Second World War-vintage Taioma was donated to the Tauranga Historic Village by Sir Bob Owens in 1979. Its fate has been in limbo since the village was sold last year and converted to a site for community organisations. However, the Taioma Reef Society was formed by a group of enthusiasts keen to scuttle the 300-tonne ship and harness growing interest in wreck diving.

A non-commercial venture, the Owens Taioma Reef, would join a trail on the east coast of the North Island that would include the Rainbow Warrior off Matauri Bay, the Tui at Tutukaka and HMNZS Waikato if it is scuttled at Hahei on the Coromandel.

The cost of towing the tug out and sinking it in 30m of water is estimated at $100,000 and the Tauranga District Council has agreed to contribute the $60,000 it would otherwise have to spend scrapping the Taioma.

A society spokesman, Tauranga surveyor and planner David Holland, said a fundraising committee would have no trouble gathering enough support if resource consent were granted for the project. Plans are to sink the 34m tug in a cradle without using explosives, so it will settle upright on the sea bottom off Motiti Island near Cattle Bay.

The Empire-class Taioma was built in Scotland in 1944 and helped to construct a breakwater at Normandy where the Allies landed during the Second World War.

In New Zealand, it attached a line to the stricken Wahine when the inter-island ferry was sinking in Wellington Harbour in 1968.

The resource consent application to scuttle the historic vessel has attracted more than 100 submissions, most of them objections from Eastern and Western Bay of Plenty Maori. They claim there would be no benefit to them, and their seafood-gathering opportunities could be affected.

Many of Motiti Island's 50 residents are behind the proposal, but beneficial landowners on the mainland, who are affiliated to the Patuwai hapu of Ngati Awa, are not.

The regional council, Environment Bay of Plenty, will arrange a meeting of the parties to discuss the opposition to the project.