Silo Marina (Auckland)

• Location: Jellicoe Street, Wynyard Quarter, on the southern side of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, next to Westhaven Marina
• Operator: Auckland Council, through Auckland Marinas
• Berths: eight, at 140m, 140m, 95m, 95m, 92.5m, 92.5m, 90m and 90m
• Maximum LOA: 140m
• Depths: 4.5m to 6.5m
• Shore power: 400 volts at 50Hz, from 125 amps up to 750 amps per berth, with everything above 125 amps hard wired
• Security: fully gated pontoons with keypad access and 24-hour CCTV
• Clearance: Silo and Auckland Central are the only Auckland marinas that can clear vessels over 24 metres with Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries
• Biosecurity: New Zealand requires a clean hull on arrival, with biofouling removed less than 30 days before arrival or a cleaning arrangement in place within 24 hours of it
• Next door: Orams Marine, with an 820-tonne travel lift hauling yachts to 75m LOA
• Orams sheds: two covered work sheds of 60 metres and one of 50 metres
• Cruising: the Hauraki Gulf starts at the harbour entrance, and the tropical Pacific is a week north

Eight berths in the middle of a city

Silo Marina occupies the end of Wynyard Point on Auckland's inner harbour, a former tank farm rebuilt as a waterfront quarter. It is small and deliberate. Eight berths, two of them at 140 metres, two at 95, two at 92.5 and two at 90, with depths from 4.5 to 6.5 metres. Auckland Council owns and runs it through Auckland Marinas, alongside the much larger Westhaven Marina next door.

The proposition is concentration. A yacht here is a walk from the city centre, a shorter walk from the marine trades clustered in Wynyard Quarter, and inside a gated compound with keypad access and continuous camera cover. Berth holders quote the position as the reason they come back. There is no equivalent facility anywhere else in the South Pacific.

The approach and the harbour

Access is around the northern head of Wynyard Point, using the same entrance as Westhaven Marina, off the Waitemata. The harbour is deep, well marked and busy with ferries, and there is no bar or shoal to negotiate. New Zealand has a real tide but nothing that gates this marina. Orams, which runs the adjoining superyacht berths, states deep water access with no air draft restriction, which matters for a large sailing yacht.

Auckland's weather is temperate and changeable, with the strongest winds coming from the southwest in winter and a summer pattern of settled northeasterlies broken by fronts. The Hauraki Gulf immediately outside is sheltered by Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel, which is why the city sails as much as it does. Ex-tropical cyclones occasionally track down from the north in late summer and are forecast days out.

Two 140 metre berths, an 820-tonne lift on the next block, and the rest of the world several weeks away.

Power, waste and how a berth is taken

Every berth carries 400 volt, 50 hertz supply from 125 amps up to 750 amps, with the 125 amp units on five-pin plugs and everything larger hard wired, so a yacht's shore power arrangement needs to be discussed before arrival. Orams operates a vacuum pump-out for black and grey water at its 90 metre berths. Fuel, provisioning and the full range of technical trades sit within the quarter.

Berths are rented and Auckland Council publishes a rates card, with berthage charged by length and the marina taking bookings directly. Nothing is sold or leased in perpetuity. With only eight berths, availability over the southern summer is the constraint, and owners planning a New Zealand season commit early. The alternative berths are at Orams and at Auckland Central Marina, which takes yachts up to 50 metres.

The yard that justifies the journey

Orams Marine has been refitting yachts in Auckland since 1987 and operates an 820-tonne travel lift that hauls superyachts up to 75 metres length overall, which is the largest capability in the South Pacific by a wide margin. It runs two covered work sheds of 60 metres and one of 50 metres, so paint and structural work happens in a controlled environment. Its own 90 metre marina berths allow work alongside for yachts too big for the lift.

New Zealand's marine industry is the reason a European owner considers coming this far. The country builds its own America's Cup boats, has a deep and genuinely skilled trade base, and the yards have a reputation for finishing on time. Labour costs less than Europe and the exchange rate has generally worked in an offshore owner's favour. The catch is freight, because any part that is not in the country arrives by air from the other side of the world.

Customs, biosecurity and the clean hull rule

Silo and Auckland Central are the only marinas in Auckland able to clear vessels over 24 metres with New Zealand Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries, with Westhaven handling anything up to 24. Arriving yachts must come to an approved place of first arrival, book a berth and then book the clearance with Customs and MPI directly. A full biosecurity clearance is what allows a yacht to move freely in New Zealand waters and stay beyond twenty days.

The biofouling regime is the strictest in the world and it catches people out. The Craft Risk Management Standard requires a vessel to arrive with a clean hull, meaning biofouling inspected and removed from the hull including niche areas less than 30 days before arrival, or a documented arrangement to clean within 24 hours of arriving. A biosecurity pre-arrival report has been mandatory since 1 May 2025. Yachts have been ordered out of New Zealand waters for failing this, and the cost of a mid-ocean surprise is entirely avoidable with a haul-out in Fiji or Tahiti on the way down.

Privacy and the city around it

The pontoons are gated and monitored, and Wynyard Quarter, while public, is a working waterfront and not a promenade built for looking at boats. One berth holder quoted by the marina describes it as close to contractors and to the city yet tucked away enough to keep privacy on board, which is a fair summary. Auckland is an unshowy place. Nobody is going to make a scene about a yacht.

The city itself has around 1.7 million people, good restaurants, decent hospitals and schools, and an international airport 30 to 40 minutes from the marina with long-haul services to Asia, North America, Australia and the Gulf. Flights to Europe involve at least one stop and the better part of a day. That distance is the single largest fact in any decision to base a yacht here.

Where the yacht goes from here

The Hauraki Gulf begins at the harbour entrance and holds Waiheke with its vineyards, Great Barrier, Kawau and a hundred anchorages within a day. North of Auckland the Bay of Islands is an easy overnight run and is the classic New Zealand cruising ground. The Marlborough Sounds and Fiordland are further and reward a longer commitment.

The bigger picture is the Pacific. Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia and Vanuatu lie roughly a week north, and French Polynesia is further east across the trades. Yachts working this circuit spend the austral winter in the tropics and come south to New Zealand for the summer, which is what turns Silo Marina into a seasonal home port for the same yachts year after year.

Season, timing and the honest downside

The tropical South Pacific cyclone season runs roughly from November to April, and New Zealand sits below the belt, so the yachts come south for the austral summer of December to March and go back north in May. That makes the New Zealand summer the cruising season and the New Zealand winter the refit season, which is the opposite of every European assumption. Berths at Silo are tightest from December to February.

The downsides are distance, scale and paperwork. Eight berths is not a lot, a delivery from the Mediterranean runs to several weeks and a large fuel bill, the biosecurity regime is unforgiving, and goods and services attract 15 per cent GST. Auckland winters are wet and windy. Owners who make the trip generally do it once, stay two or three seasons and get a refit done while they are there.

Who it is for: The owner running a Pacific programme, or willing to cross an ocean for a refit in a country that finishes on time.