Haumoana – Whakatū Nelson’s new harbourmaster vessel

A blessing ceremony for Nelson’s new Harbourmaster vessel Haumoana was held on Friday 24 March led by Council Kaumātua Luke Katu at the Nelson Marina.

The name Haumoana translates to ‘sea breeze’ and was gifted by iwi and supported by Council Kaumātua.

The new fit-for-purpose vessel provides the Nelson Harbourmaster with improved capabilities across all its operations from search and rescue, recovery, assistance, compliance, and education – to benefit the safety of everyone in our region. The much-improved suite of navigation and safety equipment aligns with other resources in the wider region – Tasman Harbourmaster, Coastguard, Rescue helicopter.

The vessel has:

• a thermal camera for search and rescue

• AIS tracking

• Trac plus tracing software to co-ordinate search and rescue with other resources and provide safety stop for crew on vessel

• much improved radar and chart software for safety

• a survey for towing

• lifting equipment

• emergency firefighting and pumping capabilities

• near-new highly efficient engines (meaning lower servicing costs).

Haumoana is a 10.2m aluminium RIB (rigid inflatable boat) with twin outboard engines. It’s a ten-year-old vessel that has been repurposed saving the large cost and time delays of a new build. The vessel cost $330,000 including all upgrades and refurbishing. A new build is estimated to cost in excess of $1 million and there would have been a wait of two or more years before it was ready.

Haumoana replaces a previous vessel, Kaiarataki, which was nearing the end of its serviceable life as an active commercial vessel after 24 years as America’s Cup chase boat, Coastguard rescue boat and later the Nelson Harbourmaster vessel.

Haumoana has greater sea-keeping abilities than the old vessel and will permit a wider scope of work in more challenging conditions. The Harbourmaster now has the ability to conduct emergency surveying for essential infrastructure within the port, such as identifying high points in dredged channels as a result of ongoing sedimentation due to the August floods.

The vessel is locally built by GP Engineering at Wavebreak Tāhunanui and Council used local companies to carry out the refit work – Fabriweld, Bluewater electrical, ENL marine electronics, Andy Rankin Boat builders, Abel Ships surveyors.