ST. MARY’S BAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 989, 4 June 1930, Page 8

ST. MARY’S BAY

WORK ON BOAT HARBOUR CURRAN STREET EXTENSION St. Mary’s Bay boat harbour is becoming the finest anchorage in New Zealand for small craft. The work, is necessarily slow as a considerable amount of dredging has to be done and the material dredged is used for the future areas of solid earth in either the reclamation or along the protection wall. The ultimate scheme, among other improvements, provides for an extension of Curran Street 40 feet wide and running along the eastern embankment of the boat harbour to a proposed hauling-up area for boats and a site for all club houses. Although no definite date has been fixed for a start on this work the whole scheme has been approved by the Auckland Harbour Board. Each separate work has to be authorised by the board, and it is expected that, with the growing demand for more anchorage in St. Mary’s Bay, the hauling-up area may be started within the nevt few months. There will be accommodation for 550 small craft in St. Mary’s Bay boat harbour when the whole scheme is completed. Although the whole bay will not be dredged to a depth which will allow boats to come and go over the whole area area at low tide there will be sufficient of the area dredged to allow them to anchor inside the wall and wait until the full tide before being moored. It is estimated that there are over 1,000 small craft, yachts, motor-boats, etc., in Auckland. Gf these 750 are registered. PAY ITS WAY The Harbour Board estimates that, on the charges proposed When the whole scheme was drawn up, the boat harbour could be made to pay its way. The board also intends to do the haui-ing-up when the hauling-up area is completed. This can only accommodate 250 craft. The hauling-up area will be situated at the w r est end of the breakwater round the bay, near the Shelly Beach Baths. This area will be a considerable width and the material will' be provided by dredging a wide area in the bay in that vicinity. It is here that the extension to Curran Street will run down on to the breakwater, giving a roadway 40 feet wide which will accommodate all the necessary traffic. Provision has been made for eight club houses and 36 boat sheds on a wide club house site further along the breakwater from the hauling-up area. There will be sufficient space for any or all of them to be added to.

Since the scheme began an area 300 feet wide and 12 feet deep at low water has been dredged at the approach to the new Birkenhead vehicular ferry between the new western reclamation and the east end of the breakwater round the bay. This also gives good access at all times to the Harbour Board’s slipway. The centre of the channel is marked by two beacons on the foreshore to the west of the R.N.V.R. drill shed. Another area about 1,500 feet by 600 feet immediately inside the eastern portion of the bay has also been dredged to a considerable depth. All the material from these areas has gone toward filling in the western reclamation, an area which is rapidly nearing completion and which will soon be ready for building purposes. . Yachts and boats rest on the mud at low water in the middle of the bay, but this state of affairs is expected to last for some time as it is not possible to dredge the whole of the bay at one time. However, as the years pass and more accommodation is required, it is only reasonable to suppose that the Harbour Board will proceed with deepening the whole of St. Mary’s Bay. When the present scheme is completed it will meet with the requirements of today. ___