Whakatāne Yacht Club marina has 17 people on its waiting list for berths and is hoping for interest from 13 more to make an expansion financially viable.

The expansion has been an aspiration for the club for over a decade, but former club commodore Don Lewell said it had been held up through a lack of manpower within the club.

Recently, the club has begun a push to further their dreams.

A marina development committee was formed just over a year ago, with Mr Lewell as chairman, with the aim of expanding the marina by an additional 30 berths. Just before Christmas it created a webpage with a concept image showing what the expansion would look like.

A breakwater would begin upstream from the clubrooms, almost as far as the McAlister Street pump station, and extend almost to the information centre. This would enclose the current berths along with 30 additional berths for recreational vessels ranging from 12 metres to 18m, protecting them from siltation and north-east winds.

The design has been developed by marina manager Barry Cutfield, who is an experienced civil engineer, and a concept image has been created by another club member, however, no resource consent has yet been applied for.

Mr Lewell said he felt there was no issue with the marina impinging on the salt marsh adjacent to Warren Cole Walkway as the marsh began west of McAlister Street.

He said the club's current marina provided over half the berthage for recreational vessels in the Whakatāne Harbour and was in great demand.

'There is little turnover of berth licence ownership and there are about 17 on the waiting list.”

He said most of the club's members saw this as a much more desirable location than the Te Rāhui Herenga Waka harbour planned to be built upstream on the other side of the river, though he felt the boat hoist planned for that development would be a useful addition.

The build-up of silt around the club's marina is an issue for navigation and the district council has dredging work planned for the area over the next month.

'While the current marina is a great asset for the town, the maintenance of navigable depth is challenging, given the small scale of the facility and the siltation that occurs during river floods,” Mr Lewell said. 'The expansion proposal is designed to create a sheltered water environment that will significantly resolve the problem.”

Whakatāne Yacht Club marina development committee chairman Don Lewell is seeking further support form recreational boaties for an expansion of the club's existing marina.

The yacht club has been in existence for 70 years and created its existing marina in 1996, providing a secure mooring facility in the river during flood events. Mr Lewell said construction costs for the expansion would be funded by the sale of berth licences, thereby placing no burden on the ratepayers or Whakatāne District Council's Harbour Fund.

The club felt that the marina would be a great asset for the town.

'The district council has received funding approval from Kānoa's Provincial Growth Fund for the vitalisation of the town centre and they have a desire to turn the town around to improve the connectivity of The Strand with the river. The marina expansion would be supportive of this,” Mr Lewell said.

'Across the country, the provision of marina activities in or near the town centre has vitalised the recreational and commercial attractiveness of the town.”

The yacht club is seeking expressions of interest and commitments from 13 more boat owners before beginning the consent process through the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and setting berth costs.

Visit the yacht club's website whakataneyachtclub.com.

-Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.