The all-new service centre has been established by Oceania Marine Shipyards and Hall Spars & Rigging at Port Whangarei in New Zealand to service large sailing rigs. An agreement to this effect was signed by Garry Hassall for Hall Spars and Martin Gleeson for Oceania Marine on July 15, 2014. The service centre is positioned at Oceania Marine Shipyards, utilizing its extensive facilities backed up by Hall Spars & Rigging’s manufacturing and servicing facility at Silverdale north of Auckland. This is located only an hour’s drive from the shipyard.

42m Catamaran (Ketch) – Rig Removal

Jim Loynes, Client Liaison and Marketing Manager for Oceania Marine, states: “Port Whangarei is already the main service centre in the Pacific for the smaller world cruising yachts but over recent years an increasing number of larger yachts including a number of superyachts have chosen to come to the port. Formalizing an arrangement with a premier builder of high-performance spars and rigging such as Hall Spars will be to the ultimate benefit of larger sailing yachts and considerably enhances the services available at the shipyards.”

The main areas of cooperation being targeted by the two companies are:

–          Attracting larger yachts to New Zealand for refit and repair works

–          Establishing Port Whangarei as a premier destination for this work to be undertaken

–          Establishing a spar and rigging service centre at the Port of Whangarei as a conduit for the Silverdale facility

–          In cases where the rig is too large for transportation to the Silverdale Facility, or the works can be done more efficiently at Port Whangarei, establishing a service centre at Oceania Marine Shipyards where such works can be completed

The spar and rigging service centre will be able to accommodate very large rigs under cover and if required, in a contained, climate controlled environment. Oceania Marine Coatings’ world class superyacht paint team will be on hand for any coatings work.

Garry Hassall comments: “From my inspection of the Oceania Marine Shipyards I have come away very impressed by the expansive vessel storage space, crew areas and ease of access these facilities have. We have worked at the shipyard previously on some big rigs and if you want to avoid congestion and have ample room in which to operate this is the place to come.”