4 April, 2026

Bayswater dreaming: Plans for clubhouse take shape

The vision… In front of an image of what a restored clubhouse might look like, members of the Bayswater Restoration Governance Committee (from left) are: Takapuna Boating Club board member Mark Wooster, club vice-commodore Darren Moore, commodore Wendy Baker, president Barry Ward and volunteer Nicole DeSonier, who helped shape the fundraising video.

The Takapuna Boating Club has begun the early stages of fundraising for an ambitious $5 million restoration of its landmark 150-year-old Bayswater clubhouse.
A Givealittle campaign has begun, its start timed for the official launch of a wider three-phase plan, which includes attracting major donors and commercial sponsors.
The club’s plan to restore the historic building to its former glory for both boating and community use were outlined to an invited audience in Takapuna last week. A slick slide show contained historic images and a vision of the restored exterior.
Club commodore Wendy Baker said each phase played a pivotal role in realising the project, which was expected to stretch over several years.
Talks were already underway with groups who may be interested in space in the building, including the Takapuna Grammar Rowing Club, she said. Conversations with council were also being held about heritage grants and future plans around the marina area. The intention was to keep the community informed, with quarterly updates.

• Phase 1 is a goal to secure $500,000 by the end of the year to enable other work to begin. Media and public engagement is planned and grants are being sought. An event at the boathouse is being considered mid-year, which may be an open day. This phase will take 10 per cent of the total budget and include a building assessment, needs and feasibility study and fundraising.
• Phase 2 is construction work, expected to cost around $3.5 million and take 70 per cent of the budget. (As reported in the Observer last month, the club has already obtained ballpark estimates. It says despite the building’s dilapidated exterior appearance, its kauri planks and foundations are sound, but repainting, weather-tightness and work on windows, a planned upper verandah and decking over the seaside frontage are needed.)
• Phase 3 will be work on the interior, estimated to cost $1 million, taking the remainder of the budget. The fitout would pave the way for a major hospitality tenant on the upper level and also include creating spaces for community meetings and mixed-use activities on the mid level, with boating use and a possible ice-cream shop beneath.
  Baker said being able to improve the “sad state” of the building was something the club was determined to push on with. This had been made possible by legislation passed last year, enabling more commercial use.

Ray Welson, a former long-standing boating club member and Hauraki resident, relayed a message from North Shore MP Simon Watts, who helped usher the law change through a five-year process.
Welson said his great-grandfather, who lived in Beresford St, was a member of the Bayswater Yachting Club (which became the Takapuna club). It first met in 1921 in the garage of his property which backed onto Shoal Bay.
His great-grandfather helped transport materials when the already 50-year-old clubhouse building was barged to its current site in pieces, after an earlier life as a tannery.
Existing tenants, a sailmaker and a windsurfing operation, would remain in place for now. They “pretty much pay the power bills”, said Baker, helped with repairs and kept a valuable eye out for vandalism and any urgent repairs that needed attending to.
A Bayswater Project Governance Committee has been formed. Baker said project funding would be kept separate from the club’s running accounts.
“We’re going to be casting the net wide for commercial sponsorship,” she said. Naming rights opportunities might include the building to spaces within it. But supporters would also be able to contribute with such things as paying to restore a window and have their name on a plaque on the sill.
“From $100 to $100,000 to even $1million if they want to.”

Please consider supporting The Rangitoto Observer by clicking here: