After 37 years, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has sold its Smelting House Bay estate on Kawau Island to mana whenua Ngāti Manuhiri, closing a chapter that began with the Lidgard family in 1954.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has sold its Smelting House Bay property on Kawau Island, ending 37 years of ownership over one of the Hauraki Gulf’s best-known waterfront holdings. The buyer is Ngāti Manuhiri, confirmed by Commodore David Blakey in a member memo following the property’s marketing through Barfoot & Thompson agent Nadja Court, who announced on Facebook that the sale had gone through.
The site runs across six titles and roughly 3.3 hectares of Bon Accord Harbour frontage, with a jetty, wharf and native bush to the water’s edge. At its centre sits Lidgard House, a recently renovated three-bedroom beach home that has hosted generations of Squadron members. Blakey confirmed Ngāti Manuhiri as mana whenua of Kawau, with their marae, Omaha, nearby and ancestral ties to Tupuna Manuhiri. He relayed the purchaser’s description of the acquisition as a return to the island and a moment of cultural reconnection for the iwi.
A clubhouse on a peppercorn rental
Roy and Irene Lidgard made their land available to the original Kawau Island Yacht Club at a peppercorn rental, and when the clubrooms opened in 1954 the site became the natural gathering point for island sailors and visiting boaties.
In 1968, three generations of the Lidgard family were lost at sea while sailing for New Caledonia. The mortgagee sale that followed saw the Auckland Motor Yacht Club buy the freehold. The land later came into BP’s ownership, and the Squadron purchased it directly from the oil company in 1989.
Thirty-seven years under the Squadron flag
Smelting House Bay takes its name from Kawau’s nineteenth century copper industry, with mining underway from 1844 and a smelter built in 1849. Ruins from that era remain on the island: the old smelting house stands in a separate reserve on the north side of Bon Accord Harbour, while the surviving engine house is at Mine Point. In the decades since 1989, the property has been the backdrop for Squadron Weekends, Youth Training Week, cruising trips and member holidays, with Lidgard House itself let out from time to time, historically from around $600 a night.
The neighbouring Kawau Boating Club site, covenanted as a yacht club, was sold separately out of Squadron ownership in 2024, when local members bought it for $635,000. Smelting House Bay carried no such covenant.
Why the Squadron chose to sell
RNZYS told members in its 2025 AGM material that the Kawau properties had become non-core to the club’s activities. The fund once set aside for their upkeep had been spent on maintenance and upgrades and no longer existed, there was no longer an onsite caretaker, and the annual cost of ownership had come to exceed the rental income from Lidgard House. That sat against a wider financial backdrop: the Squadron posted a trading loss of more than $1.4 million in 2023 coming out of the America’s Cup campaign.
Members authorised the General Committee at the August 2025 AGM to sell the six titles and direct the proceeds to the RNZYS Foundation Fund. A group of members later sought a Special General Meeting to revisit the decision; the Committee declined, citing its constitutional authority over club property.
Blakey said the sale price landed at the upper end of independent valuation, calling it a strong commercial outcome for the club. The six titles carried combined 2024 rating valuations of $3.94 million, though the final sale price has not been made public. Auckland property consultant Warwick “Buzz” Scown worked alongside Barfoot & Thompson on the deal, first contracting the purchase with RNZYS before helping structure the acquisition for Ngāti Manuhiri. Proceeds will be invested through the Foundation, managed by Milford, with a share directed toward the Squadron’s Westhaven premises.
What continues at Smelting House Bay
Ngāti Manuhiri has invited RNZYS to keep using the beachfront, jetty, pontoon and lawn twice each summer for an initial 20 years, covering fixtures such as Squadron Weekend and Youth Training Week. Use of Lidgard House itself will be arranged by mutual agreement each time. The Squadron also keeps four Kawau moorings, down from the five it held going into the sale process, with the AGM material noting at the time that one or more could end up forming part of the deal.
Blakey told members the club would look to maintain a positive relationship with Ngāti Manuhiri and continue supporting the shared history, culture and environment of Kawau Island and the wider Hauraki Gulf.
