Located on Auckland‘s waterfront, the largest city of the beautiful yacht charter destination New Zealand, SILO MARINA has doubled its capacity. The marina is now able to accommodate yachts and it is easier to install masts as they approach the next season.

SiloPark 30 Sept 2013 - Photo Clive Bennett

Silo Marina is located in the heart of Auckland’s inner city waterfront, on Jellicoe Street and is adjacent to the larger Westhaven marina. Easily identifiable by the 37 metre high concrete silos that overlook the berths the marina was first constructed in 2010 as part of a revitalisation of the Wynyard Quarter area.

Over the last month construction works has seen a new 90 metre dock added with a one metre freeboard making it the biggest pontoon in New Zealand.

SiloPark on 30 Sept 2012 - Photo Clive Bennett

Adjacent to the new pontoon significant dredging has been carried out to provide ease of access to the dock and to open up access to a 64 metre berth adjacent to the new premises of Southern Spars subsidiary, Rig Pro.

Silo Marina Manager Luke Wigglesworth says an exciting feature of the new development is the improved ability to carry out mast stepping.

“To date, masts have had to be installed beside nearby wharves with the added risk of damaging vessels due to movements from tidal flows and sea conditions. With the improvements to our new Silo Marina service berth we’ve taken a good deal of the hassle out of the process.”

Yacht at the Silo Marina - Photo Clive Bennett

“The berth was given its first test run this week with the launch of the new Alloy Yachts vessel the 43.9m Dubois designed sloop ‘Encore’, with the mast stepping going off without a hitch.”

In addition to the development on the southern end of the marina, a new extension is about to be added to the existing docks on the northern end to create two new 65 metre berths.

With the new developments Silo Marina will move from 535 linear metres to 874 linear metres of available space, doubling capacity and creating 10 berths in total to make boat movements easier.

Silo Marina layout

Waterfront Auckland is the council organisation that owns and operates Silo Marina. It’s General Manager Marinas, Tom Warren says the additional infrastructure is crucial to ensuring Auckland continues to have the facilities to allow the boat building and servicing firms to get on and do their job.

“Superyacht fit outs and servicing is a big part of New Zealand’s marine industry as vessels come here to be fitted out with top of the line equipment from the likes of such companies as Southern Spars. With these new works we can do all we can to facilitate growth in this market for the benefit of both the suppliers and boat owners themselves.”

After a quieter than usual summer season, Silo Marina already has three bookings confirmed for September with two booked for the winter.