“People will be flabbergasted about that, but it’s been done purely as a volunteer group. We’ve had no paid professionals at all other than the architect and engineer. So we haven’t gone out to the market and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants, it’s been a labour of love for nine years for us all really.”
The signs went up, he says, at the point the club knew it could carry out the project.
“We basically had the design of it and were working through the final working drawings, so it was time to launch.
“We were starting from zero when you think about it - and we’ve taken it from a little pencil drawing to what we have now.”
The club has been at pains to engage with the community every step of the way “because it’s going to be their centre”.
The new building’s design reflects its function and standing.
“The original design ethos was around a solid object, a rock - the rock being the cornerstone or pillar of our club: sturdy and strong.
“The rock sits quite prominently to the front of the building and the clubhouse rolls quite purposefully to the back, if you can imagine it, like the waves going around the rock.
“This encapsulates our club, our family and our whānau. The pillar of our club is the lifeguarding service and then the whānau are the waves washing around the rock.”
The “rock” includes the 36 square metre patrol tower that is the third storey of the building.
“That will be where we educate the lifeguards and obviously patrol from because of the height.”
Higher than the current patrol area, the new tower will give guards a better view of the bar and the entrance to the Waihī Estuary.
The ground floor is operational space and includes public toilets, an under cover area for tutoring, showers and equipment storage areas.
The middle floor is more of a clubhouse that will have a small commercial kitchen, and a separate kitchen for lifeguards.
It is, says Andrew, a significant step up in terms of facilities.
“We are on the up as far as growth goes. The junior surf programme is going gangbusters, our lifeguarding service is continuing to grow and our club and community are getting more and more attuned to us being at that end of the beach.
“The [existing] building doesn’t really lend itself to being a community hub.”
While the new building is scheduled to take 14 months to finish - so will not be available next summer - club president Boyd Harris says it will still be “business as usual usual” for the club next summer.
“We will have to assess between now and then where to patrol.”
The options are either from Motunau Park - where the club used to be based - or Dotterel Point Reserve, where it is now.
Boyd hopes the upper part of the old building can be donated for use elsewhere.
The club is responsible for site clearance and members of the local community with appropriate skills have offered their help.
Sand from the site is to be used nearby for erosion prevention so it doesn’t have to be trucked long distance, companies such as BOP House Removals, McLeod Cranes and Adline Transport are all helping out and Cassidy Construction will build the new facility.
“A lot is being done by members and local contractors who are at the beach who are giving a bit of time and effort,” says Boyd. “That sort of stuff helps and saves money.”
He hopes there will be opportunities for the community to visit and see the progress being made.
Building the old clubhouse was also a community effort. It was officially opened in 1997 by the late Graeme Weld, then a councillor, who would later become Western Bay mayor.
