Connecting Wellingtonians to Wellington Harbour
The Clyde Quay Boat Harbour Restoration Project aims to restore the boat harbour to once again be the jewel in the crown of the Wellington Waterfront, fit for purpose as a primary means of connecting Wellingtonians to Wellington Harbour.
The project arises from a memorandum of understanding with the Wellington City Council to develop a master plan for the restoration of the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour. The masterplan has been peer reviewed and subsequently an amended layout has been developed which can be viewed here.
The following drawings and sketches show the journey of the development of the masterplan from the initial concepts through to the amended layout resulting from the findings of the peer review process.
When complete it is likely that the following activities will be in place in and around the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour:
- Public Amenity, Harbour Accessibility, Heritage Celebration
- Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
- Wellington Ocean Water Sports Centre
- Clyde Quay Marina
- Powered by the Wind Education Centre
Public Amenity, Harbour Accessibility Heritage Celebration
The Clyde Quay Boat Harbour Restoration Project is primarily a social restoration project aimed at providing greater public amenity within the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour, increasing public access to Wellington Harbour and celebrating the boat harbour’s nationally significant heritage values. This will be achieved through the following elements:
- Public plazas in the centre of the harbour and its north-eastern edge
- A western park integrating the harbour coherently into the Wellington Waterfront
- Enhanced entrance ways on western and eastern edges drawing people into the harbour
- Widened concrete promenade clearly connecting the western edge to the central public plaza
- Legible connections to the boat harbour via improved entrance steps off Oriental Parade
- A promenade clearly connecting the central plaza to Oriental Bay beach
- Restoration of heritage elements including heritage interpretation areas and a cluster of heritage yachts
Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
In the centre of the harbour is the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club. Along with its primary function of running yachting programmes, the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour Restoration Project will see the club increasingly taking on a significant public amenity role. This will be achieved through the following elements:
- A Royal Yacht Club providing a comprehensive year round sailing programme
- A centre for the delivery of significant ocean water sports events for Wellington
- A Remote Control Yacht attraction for tourists and locals to sail model yachts in the boat harbour
- A Harbour Sails attraction for tourists and locals to take sailing excursions on the Wellington harbour
- A waterfront cafe/restaurant
- A venue for meetings, seminars and other social engagements
Wellington Ocean Sports Centre
The Wellington City Council and Sport New Zealand have begun a three year project to establish Ocean Sports Centre in and around the Clyde Quay Precinct. The project is an “active communities” initiative aimed at increasing the number of Wellingtonians actively participating in ocean water sports. A purpose-built Wellington Ocean Sports Centre will be developed as part of the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour Restoration Project. This will include the following elements:
- Classrooms for the delivery of ocean sports courses
- Office space for ocean sports administration
- Changing rooms including drying space for wet weather and safety clothing
- Storage space for equipment such as kayaks, windsurfers, stand up paddle boards, waka ama, yachts etc
- Storage space for rescue and coaching craft
- Enhanced access to the harbour for a range of ocean sports
Clyde Quay Marina
A further component of the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour Restoration Project is the upgrading of marina facilities within the boat harbour. The harbour is now over a 100 years old and in that time has had very little upgrading. The project will see the functionality of the boat harbour greatly improved for the recreational sport of yachting along with other ocean water sports. The capacity of the boat harbour will be increased to over 100 craft. This will be achieved through the following elements:
- Removal of mooring blocks from harbour floor
- Selective dredging to increase depth in key areas
- Installation of pile mooring systems along the eastern and western breakwaters
- Installation of surge and wave mitigation system
- Installation of walk on marina berths in the harbour
- Establishment of a central bay for ocean sports events
Powered by the Wind Education Centre
A Powered by the Wind Education Centre is proposed to be established in the precinct in order to capitalise on Wellington’s unique wind advantage and New Zealand’s competitive edge in innovative design and use of high tech materials in the marine and renewable energy sectors. The Powered by the Wind Education Centre could contribute to the city’s Smart Capital vision through the following elements:
- A programme for Wellington schools designed to improve science and technology literacy of Wellington children
- A tertiary level qualification programme focusing on the design and engineering of structures using high technology materials for wind energy generation and yacht design
- An annual competition focusing on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of wind energy generation technologies
- An annual international competition aimed at designing, creating and testing craft that can beat the world speed sailing record