A $3 million upgrade of the Anchorage Marina is now complete – and just in time for the busy summer holiday period.
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Twenty-two new berths have been created at the Corlette marina, specifically designed for large and luxury boats up to 66ft.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony on Wednesday morning, marina co-owner Greg Shand from Barana Group said the Anchorage took advantage of the winter months to push the upgrade’s completion through in time for the upcoming season.
“We want to attract a new category of customer to the Port Stephens area,” Mr Shand said.
“This marina can cater for large boats. All the advice we’ve had suggest that’s the direction the market is heading so it’s very important that we can cater for them.
“We hope this will make the marina a success and contribute to Port Stephens.”
With help from Port Stephens Mayor Ryan Palmer, Mr Shand and co-owner Allan Vidor from Toga Group opened the new-look marina with a ceremonial cutting of the ribbon.
“The high-end tourism market is growing across the world,” Cr Plamer said.
“With the facilities we have here it will certainly open us up to new markets. It is certainly something we can be really proud of.”
Cr Palmer, Port Stephens councillor Glen Dunkley and new Tomaree Business Chamber president Leah Anderson arrived at the marina for Wednesday’s ceremony on board Moonshadow-TQC vessel Moonshadow IV, one of the largest in the fleet.
The arrival was to demonstrate how the marina could cater for large vessels.
“Moonshadow-TQC will move approximately 15 charters a year out of the Anchorage Marina, predominately the corporate market,” Mel Turner, the sales and special events coordinator at Moonshadow-TQC, said.
“Our next one with the new marina will be an international corporate charter of 150 delegates visiting from New York, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore.
“They will be going on Moonshadow V, which is the largest in our fleet.
“Previously, before this marina, we were very limited by what vessels we could get in, which limited the amount of passengers we could take out of the Anchorage.
“Now the size of the marina allows all of our vessels to moor and berth, and we have the capacity to move 300 passengers.”
The upgrade included two new marina arms with 22 berths catering for larger boats between 55 and 66ft.
Berths of this size have not been easily accessible in Port Stephens before now.
One of the challenges of the job was ensuring the best design to cope with the seasonal winds.
Anchorage Marina commissioned a wave study for the location prior to finalising the design of a 5m by 50m wave attenuator that runs east west across the mouth of the marina.
In addition to the wave challenge the harbour bed conditions were quiet variable, ranging from hard granite to soft sand.
“The wave attenuator was a critical part of the installation,” Gary Charlwood from design and construction company Bellingham Marine Australia said.
“Winds in Port Stephens can create a bit of discomfort wherever you are, so the brief was to ensure boats within the marina walls had maximum protection.
“We are finding the need for attenuators increasing in Australia and globally. We can provide shelter for and build marinas in places not possible 20 years ago.
“Corlette is certainly one of the prettiest places we’ve built a marina and I’m not surprised how popular it is with boaters.”