Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby and NZ Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Tony Parr officially opened the new TS Chatham Sea Cadet unit, the Southern Cross Sea Scouts and the Tauranga Young Mariners on Saturday at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club.

Ordinary from Tauranga Nadine Davies, Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Tony Parr and Tauranga petty officer TJ Te Wheoro at the opening of the new TS Chatham Sea Cadet unit, the Southern Cross Sea Scouts and the Tauranga Young Mariners at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club.

It is eight and a half years since Tauranga City Council first approached then yacht club commodore John Buck seeking new homes for the clubs about to be evicted because of planned waterfront changes.
'It took a long time, these groups didn't want to move,” says John.
The solution arrived at was the construction of sheds at the yacht club to store the boats for the three groups, plus another shed for the yacht club boats that used to be stored under the yacht club – and then to extend the vacated yacht club basement and build an indoor meeting space for the organisations' other activities.
'That's now been completed,” says John.
'All these groups have struggled over the last three or four years, now they are going to see the results in increased membership and activities.”
The total cost was $1.5 million with money coming from several donors including the Lion Foundation, TECT, Sovereign, and Tauranga City Council.
The Sea Cadets are celebrating on Saturday by hosting their northern regional regatta.
TA Chatham Squadron leader Lee White says there will be about 14 cutters sailing in the regatta and about 60 cadets staying at the new unit on Saturday night.
'We do it every year in February or March,” says Lee.
'We usually sail in the inner harbour but this time we will be sailing in Pilot Bay.”
The Sea Cadets, Sea Scouts and Young Mariners officially opens at 12.30pm. The warning signal for the first race in the Tauranga regatta was fired at 10.55am.
The club's regatta is also the Mistral and Farr 3.7 North Island Championships.