Minato Maru

[Xman]

Not the most exciting wreck in the world, but nice and close to Auckland, in about 25m of water in the inner Hauraki Gulf.


This is a Fishing Trawler that sunk upright in a fairly well used piece of shipping lane.
It is marked on charts (see above)
At some point an unsuccessful attempt was made to raise her, and there is a lot of chain rigging and large drums across the deck. Like a lot of wrecks there are significant numbers of snag hazards on the ship, and this combined with the generally poor visibility add a little "adventure" to this dive.
The text from New Zealand Maritime says-
"The MINATO MARU NO.102 sailed from Auckland 6 Sep 1983 in calm, clear weather. That afternoon she ran aground on Shearer Rock, a mile east of Tiritiri-Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf, at full speed and stuck fast."[/img]

[scoty]

It is not were charts show it i have pinged it just over 100m meters away and it was a pain to find i will find the co-orinates

[ChuckyBob]

We dived it a year or two ago. Took us about 15 minutes to find it on sounder.

Hope to get back some time this year.

[Cameron_R]

We dived "it" on New Year’s Day this year.

6 on the boat, first 4 went down, found the wreck. Two stayed around the wreck, the other two because of the current only saw it in the distance then surfaced. When it came to our turn to dive, we got to the anchor wondered why there was no wreck, then noticed that the anchor was speeding along the bottom at a couple knots with us holding on. 30m dive in 5 mins including a 2min saftey stop - marked in the log book as "Sand Survey" (or it would be if I had a log book).

From what I heard, it sounded like a pretty cool wreck apart from the viz and current.

[MikeS]

I've been keen to dive this for quite a while. Can someone post good coords? Cheers

[scoty]

i wil get them for you tomorrow when my boat back from service

[Tony]

Sounds like a goodie there mike....

[Azza]

We dived it a year or two ago. Took us about 15 minutes to find it on sounder.

Hope to get back some time this year.

Thats right...I was going to dig the coordinates out of the GPS for you...I'm getting there...Good things take time

[ChuckyBob]

...Good things take time

18 months?

I heard it was a great place to gather anchors although I didnt see any on our dive except for Azza's.

Its easy to see how many would be lost on her with all the cables and railings for the anchors to grab on.

Its a very popular fishing spot. I was out there 6 months or so ago on the CG boat. We had nothing to do so I though we could do some search pattern training and see if we could spot her. On the exact GPS co' ords was a fishing boat. Of course there was no wreck directly below. But there were several other boats in the immediate vicinity,

So it goes with out saying that not only are there a few anchors there but there is a ship load of mono , hooks and bait.

[petemes]

Ahhhhh,

Nothing like an HMS Seabed dive!!!

Anyway here are my marks for the wreck.

S36 41.145
E174 55.114

Just be mindful that there is a hell a lot of mono filament and if you want any anchors for your boat, there are heaps on this wreck too. This wreck is VERY tidal best at the top of the incoming (high water slack) Not a bad dive. Viz is normally a little shy of crap! but it makes you focus on the little things!! Enjoy.

Anyone dived the Selwyn Craig - at the sugar refinery? Get bumped into a few times by bronzies, again a vizually challenged dive. Rust none the less!

Pete

We dived "it" on New Year’s Day this year.

6 on the boat, first 4 went down, found the wreck. Two stayed around the wreck, the other two because of the current only saw it in the distance then surfaced. When it came to our turn to dive, we got to the anchor wondered why there was no wreck, then noticed that the anchor was speeding along the bottom at a couple knots with us holding on. 30m dive in 5 mins including a 2min saftey stop - marked in the log book as "Sand Survey" (or it would be if I had a log book).

From what I heard, it sounded like a pretty cool wreck apart from the viz and current.

[ChuckyBob]

Anyway here are my marks for the wreck.

S36 41.145
E174 55.114

That would be the charted co-ords not the actual wreck?

The charted Co-Ords for the Selwyn Craig are
36 49.413s
174 43.486e

[petemes]

Didnt seem to have any problems finding the wreck. dived it 3 times on those coords.

Anyway here are my marks for the wreck.

S36 41.145
E174 55.114

That would be the charted co-ords not the actual wreck?

The charted Co-Ords for the Selwyn Craig are
36 49.413s
174 43.486e

[ChuckyBob]

I have had no issues finding it either although others have.

A pick of the Selwyn Craig ( from what I can gather)

[ChuckyBob]

For those interested I have got some exact co ords for the Minato Maru

36 41.129
174 55.044

Which is about 100 meters due west magnetic from the charted site.
I also have a sonar scan that I will load up when I get an electronic copy.

I hope to get out for another dive on her in the near future.

[ChuckyBob]

Jut back from another dive on the MM. above Co-Ords are very acurite and we had no problem finding her.

Was almost perfect conditions today. 0-5 kt winds and next to no current. Vis was 5 meters max.

There is a bit of fish life on her. I saw 4 crays( or maybe it was just the same 2 twice) and a couple of John Dory. Plenty of Goat fish, and a few snapper too. We found 1 anchor and Phil's mission on the second dive was to retrieve it.
All in all a nice wreck dive only 40 minutes from home.