Birkenhead Point Marina relaunches

Some 150 marina tenants, Mirvac staff and guests recently attended the official opening of the newly renovated Birkenhead Point Marina.

The renovation to a fully serviced marina with more than 200 berths from 8m to 45m in length has been 12 years in the making, during which time there have been four different owners of Birkenhead Point.

Property group Mirvac is now at the helm of this premium marine establishment, after paying $310 million for the Birkenhead Point shopping centre and the original 137-berth marina in 2014.

At his opening speech, marina manager Phil McGowan said: “We have now built best marina on Sydney Harbour. Because of the complexity of the development, we faced many unforeseen challenges, however, the end result is impressive.

“We have installed the new A Arm to berth superyacht vessels up to 45 metres in length.

“We have also installed a 70 metre long fuel wharf, offering full-service fuelling to our customers from four separate fuel stations. We are there to meet and greet the customer, tie up his or her vessel and assist them with the fuelling of their boat from start to finish.

“The stress is taken out of the fuelling process for the customer and they leave our marina with a good experience.  Our Fuel tank holds 110,000 litres, which we have split into 70,000 litres of diesel and 40,000 litres of Premium 95 unleaded. I am happy to say that our fuel provider is SHELL, so good quality fuel is always guaranteed,” McGowan said.

Birkenhead Marina has also replaced B Arm, upgraded C Arm, installed new security gates, and built a floating marina office and kiosk out on the fuel wharf. The kiosk sells necessary boating supplies, like ice, cold drinks, bait and grocery items with good quality barista coffee thanks to Grinders, who trained the staff twice.

In addition to the professional staff, seven boys in Year 10-12 from Riverview and Holy Cross College are now employed to work as casual marina attendants on a rotating roster on weekends and in school holidays at the fuel wharf.

Birkenhead Point marina and its experienced mariner Bob Foster, who volunteers his time to splice all the ropes for all the resident boats, have raised in excess of $87,000 — a lot of splicing — to donate to the Tumour Bank at Westmead Children’s Hospital.

The Mayor of the City of Canada Bay, Angelo Tsarkis, officiated the opening. He was presented with a framed marina pennant Flag, which many Birkenhead Point Marina vessels fly when out on the water, along with the Number A1 representing the first berth on the new superyacht Arm. More at http://www.birkenheadpointmarina.com.au.