Lease plan for restored ferry pleases

Elsie Evans at anchor on the Otago Harbour at Portobello, yesterday. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery.
Elsie Evans at anchor on the Otago Harbour at Portobello, yesterday. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery.
Dunedin deputy mayor Chris Staynes has welcomed a move by a not-for-profit  organisation to seek a lessee to operate  historic Otago Harbour ferry  Elsie Evans.

Seeking a lessee was a "great" news, in  that it  would remove the "danger" the vessel could be lost if the Otago Harbour Ferry Inc  tried to run the service itself and incurred significant debt, he said.

It was a "very wise step" and a "very good decision". It was also pleasing  the overall restoration project was nearing completion, and the ferry would become a community asset,  he said.

The incorporated  society  began advertising the  lease on social media on Thursday.

About $500,000 has been spent on the restoration. In anOtago Daily Times report last June  on the more than 11-year-long restoration project, Cr Staynes said the Dunedin City Council had put no more money into the project since it turned the vessel restoration body down for $25,000 funding in 2011.

Cr Staynes said last year  Mr Sutherland had been in touch since the funding was declined, looking for input into the idea of leasing the vessel to an operator. Cr Staynes said yesterday that as a then member of the council’s economic development committee and its finance committee, he had been asked to liaise with the society. The need to seek a lessee had been part of the council’s earlier recommendations, he said.

Society  chairman Shem Sutherland said  offering the lease was a "significant development" in the overall restoration project.

The 12.9m Elsie Evans was the only vessel of its kind in New Zealand and had positive potential,  he said yesterday.

The  society was happy to work  with the lessee and there were potential "win-win" benefits for both parties,  he said. The vessel’s physical requirements were "99%" completed. Completing survey requirements after the restoration was expected to cost about $7000, he said.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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