History of OCEANIA MARINE Shipyard

Located at Port Whangarei, New Zealand

Boat-building started in the Whangarei Harbour area in the 1800′s with wooden workboats and pleasure craft. In the 1950′s the capacity to construct larger workboats in steel was developed. Demand was driven by the vigorous development of an export port for primary produce and from other centres from throughout New Zealand. The Port Whangarei area consists mainly of land reclaimed by the Northland Harbour Board, a government organisation, in the 1950′s and 60′s. The Shipyard  currently operated by Oceania Marine is located on part of this land and has a history going back over 50 years under various owners. On this page we intend to build up a record of that history which may be of general interest but, perhaps more importantly, give prospective clients an idea of the marine construction refit and repair heritage that the shipyard has.

 

Timeline:

2009 to date                       Oceania Marine Limited

Took over the shipyard in 2009 after New Zealand Yachts Limited ceased trading. Offers a marine refit, repair and construction service to a wide range of vessels mostly over 25 metres LOA including superyachts. See Website pages for details . For a Profile of the Directors CLICK HERE

 

2001 to 2009                       New Zealand Yachts Limited (NZY)

Acquired the shipyard from Northland Port Corporation in 2001 and invested heavily in new facilities for the manufacture of composite superyachts. From 2004 NZY diversified into refit and repair.

 

1993 to 2002                         Northport Engineering

Northport Engineering was a subsidiary of the Northland Port Corporation and operated the shipyard for a decade during which time it provided construction and refit services to a wide range of clients, mainly commercial but also including yachts and superyachts. One of the new build superyacht projects commenced at this time was the Flyghtship motor yacht named ‘T6′.

 

1962 to 1993                         Whangarei Engineering and Construction Co Limited (WECO)

This company was incorporated in 1962 formalising a marine business which had been in operation well before this time. WECO built up marine construction refit and repair at the shipyard until in the 1980’s it was described as New Zealand’s largest shipbuilder. It maintained this status until it ceased trading in 1993 after which time the business it created was successfully carried on by Northport Engineering. WECO serviced mainly commercial clients but it also built some yachts. For details of the range of vessels constructed or refitted by WECO Click Here