Mercury Bay Boating Club

"We were in a high tide cycle with the most devastating powerful waves I've seen in a long time."

The Mercury Bay Boating Club sacrifices its deck after storm surf from Cyclone Hale undermined the building overnight. Photos: Christel Yardley/Stuff.

This includes helping with the removal of the deck, storage of property and supporting a plan and fundraising efforts to assist with moving the building. “We did not want to be the renegade club that put down a defence system without the support and without the endorsement of the authorities ... He made the call to fill bags with quarry spoil and erect a temporary sea wall to prevent further erosion in the overnight high tide. Over the last three to six months, Kline says the club has witnessed “an acceleration in the loss of the bank. We were informed we don’t fit into the law that allows those blocks to be placed in front of this club. Either arrange the defences without council consent and risk repercussions, or let the waves do their work. But here now, in the space of two weeks, we don’t have those couple of years any more.” We are a private dwelling, on council land. Instead, the blocks sat idle as the sea tore soil and sand from beneath the clubrooms. “We are in a funny area. Estimated to be in the range of “$140,000-$200,000” to move what remains of the building to a site further from the foreshore, the club has said they will require as much support from the community as they can get. “We lost approximately another two and a half metres.

A race is on to save a historic boating club behind New Zealand's first bid to contest the America's Cup. Overnight storm surges have chewed away the land.

- Publish Date - Wed, 11 Jan 2023, 9:41AM - Author

There are fears the late night high-tide, super-charged by ex-tropical Cyclone Hale , may dangerously erode the remaining coastline. The clubhouse was behind ...

Day-break will reveal whether a Coromandel boating club has been lost to a storm surge 11 January 2023 Day-break will reveal whether a Coromandel boating club has been lost to a storm surge