Case Study: Sailing’s Golden Mile – Wind in the Sails

The first of the superyachts are arriving in Auckland right now to a) avoid the tropical hurricane season and b) take advantage of Westhaven’s Marine Industry Cluster for service and maintenance.
The marine industry is worth over $2 billion year to the New Zealand economy and those involved believe the secret of their success lies in collaboration and working together for the greater good.
“Our whole thrust is let’s secure future for New Zealand with this as an important sector – and we feel that as Marine Industry Cluster we’re much more powerful than we would be as smaller companies acting on our own. We all know each other well, we’ve been rubbing shoulders for years and years. We’ve all got common aim for successful industry so we’re very committed to that,” says Tony Whiting of Whiting Power Systems – company which specialises in engineering refits for boats.
“The reality is that we have fairly small planet with lot of water so there are some places, like the Med and the Caribbean, that are already too crowded so we knew it was only matter of time before more boats started coming down into the Pacific. And the perfect funnel for all the [Pacific] Islands to feed into for maintenance is Auckland. And where is the best place in Auckland to do it – Westhaven,” he says.
Whiting is huge fan of the cluster arrangement and the one-stop service it is able to collectively provide. He has been active on industry bodies for many years and says that collaboration by no means stops robust discussion and even some disagreement. But, he says, at the end of the day, those involved know they will do better business as group.
Whiting Power Systems began in 1983 and has grown from an owner-operator business to company with over 20 experienced and qualified personnel.
Whiting, the founder and managing director – and one of of Auckland’s famous – grew up immersed in sailing environment.
“My parents and siblings were passionate sailors. It was wonderful way to spend my childhood.”
In 1974 he joined his parents for an extended cruise aboard their 47 foot yacht, Tequila, which was designed by Paul Whiting (Tony’s brother). Leaving Auckland, the family sailed to Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii and Midway Island before setting course for the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, California and Mexico. Tony disembarked in the United States where he worked for Caterpillar on the Californian coast as diesel engineer for three years before being promoted to lead their marine engine division.
He returned to New Zealand in 1981 to fill the managing director’s role at Whiting Yachts after Paul was lost at sea while returning to Auckland after the 1979/80 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
Whiting Yachts was sold in 1983 and Tony set up Dockside Marine Services to concentrate on servicing, installations and local refits. He engineered many significant vessels, including Grant Dalton’s ketch rigged maxi, Fisher and Paykel, which finished second in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World race.
A growing client base and steadily increasing demand for recognised equipment brands saw number of distributorships added to the company’s portfolio and eventually led to the name change to Whiting Power Systems and to relocation to larger Westhaven premises. The business is now part of Orams Marine Village – purpose-built marine service facility completed in 2004 – and the hub of the Westhaven Marine Cluster.
Orams has been building and servicing all types of vessels since 1947 and, in 1987, brought the first superyacht into New Zealand for an interior alteration and refit. Since then the business has grown to be the largest superyacht service facility in the Pacific – along with its cluster partners.
As general manager Craig Park explains, Orams project manages the refits and overhauls carried out, contracting in the other tradespeople and suppliers as needed. Tenants in the village range from marine engineers through carpenters, steel fabricators and marine upholsterers to plumbing, bulk refuelling and sail making.
“The way the cluster works is that the industry in New Zealand is very seasonal. The big superyachts predominantly visit during New Zealand’s summer – when they need to head south to avoid the tropical cyclone season. For us as yard, it’s not really feasible to carry this many trades – engineering, painting, electrical etc, all the ones you need to fully service super­yachts – through the slower months so we have the facility here, and the slipway, and then we contract the other businesses to do the work. We tend to project manage the jobs more than the other guys as we’re the largest company.”
Park says the Westhaven set-up is globally unique, something which is recognised by owners and crews who often make return visits for further work.
“We’ve been working with the yard and the other contractors here for 15 to 20 years. We were in Whangarei before but, geographically, it’s never really going to fly there. Boats don’t really want to go up there,” Park says.
Orams staff get work lists from the boat crew before they arrive so by the time they tie up alongside, the project controller is in the yard and has all the contractors in the cluster sorted out and briefed.
“This makes it lot more efficient, which is what the owners and crews want. The boats are here for such short time that you need to be efficient with what you’re doing – you can’t wait week for one guy to have time to do job. It all needs to flow and that’s why we all find it easier that one company project controls the whole process.
“Some clients basically arrive, hand us the keys to the boat and say they’ll pick it up in six months’ time.”
Park says the industry is growing as the cooperation benefits them all, but is concerned that the future is handbraked by real estate – more specifically, the lack of it available on reasonable terms.
“We need more room. That’s our biggest handicap, that we just haven’t got enough space. The future of Wynyard Quarter [the area of Auckland’s waterfront where the cluster is based] is under review at the moment and we’re hoping the marine industry is going to get quite bit of the space available – lot more of it than we’ve got at the moment.
“The New Zealand marine industry has fantastic reputation but my fear is that it will be handbraked solely because we don’t have enough room here to service the boats,” Park says.
He says there is nowhere else in New Zealand that can replicate the Westhaven operation, which raises the worrying possibility of lot of income, jobs and expertise being lost overseas.
“The export potential from refits alone is phenomenal, but if we have to disperse, it’s just going to ruin it. And as soon as you lose the momentum, the boats just find another option. They go for convenience and reputation – both of which Westhaven has – but they will find it elsewhere if we drop our game. That’s lot of money the country will lose,” he says, adding that it’s not just the boat yard income, but the hospitality, accommodation and tourism sectors which will also lose out. Marine Industry Association chairman Peter Busfield believes the secret behind the marine industry’s successful collaboration lies in the presence of strong trade association as neutral point of contact.
“Not because I’m involved in running it,” he stresses, “but because it’s neutral nucleus point.” He says that the association gives the industry competitive edge by enabling joint promotional and lobbying activities to occur. It’s an arrangement he encourages other industries to adopt.
The cluster is already at capacity and having to turn yachts away – situation participants say is ridiculous given that space is the only constraint. Both Whiting and Park agree that more work could be undertaken – if only there was more room for the businesses to expand.
“Over the period of time we’ve been doing this, we’ve narrowed [the cluster] down to the best companies so there are no issues working together. I

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