Andrea Vance|The Post – November 12, 2026 • 4:00amCopy Link
A multimillion-dollar effort to restore the navy’s depleted fleet after the sinking of HMNZS Manawanui has stalled indefinitely, with a mothballed patrol ship stuck in port.
The offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Otago has missed its scheduled return to duty after a fuel system failure interrupted its final trials.
And the defence force cannot say when it will be repaired or ready to sail again.
The breakdown is an embarrassing reversal for the military, which is spending $35m restoring Otago after a five year absence from sea. It has idled in storage for three years at Devonport Naval Base.
The decision to reactivate Otago followed the loss of Manawanui, a $100m specialist dive and hydrographic vessel which sank after running aground on a reef off the Samoan island of Upolu in October 2024.
Then Chief of Defence Force Tony Davies told a parliamentary select committee late last year that the decision to bring Otago out of ‘care and custody’ was made directly in the wake of the Manawanui disaster.
He said: “Before you put it back to sea, it has to have quite a bit of work and money spent on it… It requires tens of millions of dollars.”
Otago was one of three vessels taken out of service between 2021 and 2022, alongside its sister ship HMNZS Wellington and the inshore patrol vessel HMNZS Hawea.
The navy lacked enough qualified sailors to crew them after a period of personnel losses.
Five years after it last went to sea, the navy celebrated the ship’s return with fanfare on August 15, proclaiming on social media that Otago was “back on the blue”.
Under the command of Commander Andrew Sorensen, a 56-strong crew began sea acceptance trials in the Hauraki Gulf.
Just a day earlier, The Post had sent a series of questions to the defence force asking whether Otago had suffered unexpected defects or deterioration during its prolonged lay-up, and why the return-to-service timeline had slipped from early 2026 to later in the year.
We also asked whether the final bill would hold within the $35 million budget, and exactly how many qualified sailors were assigned to crew the ship.
A week later, on August 21, a defence force spokesperson pointed to the ship’s departure as proof that the reactivation was on track.
“The ship is currently undertaking sea acceptance trials to test the overhauled engines and generators, replacement navigation systems and upgraded sensors and control systems… It is expected that HMNZS Otago and its crew will conduct operational deployments from late October 2026.”
This week the defence force confirmed the comeback has stalled.
“The Royal New Zealand Navy’s offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Otago has not been able to deploy as planned, due to a fuel system issue that occurred during regeneration. This has resulted in a planned deployment being postponed,” a spokesperson said.
The failure occurred before the crew could complete basic operational readiness evaluations.
“The Maritime Training Group undertook evaluation of the ship and assessed it safe to continue with operational preparations at the time, but final evaluations as part of those preparations were not completed due to the decision to postpone the deployment and investigate and rectify the fuel system issue,” the spokesperson said.
Until the problem is fixed, the vessel has lost its authority to operate at sea.
Asked when the fault would be resolved, the spokesperson said: “No confirmed timeframe can be given for the fuel system issue rectification.”
The spokesperson said the $35m refit stayed within budget, but admitted the extra cost of fixing the broken fuel system is being absorbed by the navy’s everyday running budget.
It revives a long history of mechanical trouble for the 16-year-old vessel.
Built in Melbourne under the $500 million Project Protector programme, Otago’s initial delivery was delayed by more than two years amid weight issues and contractor disputes that culminated in the Crown negotiating an $85m settlement with shipbuilder BAE Systems.
When Otago finally prepared to make its maiden voyage across the Tasman in 2010, engine manifold faults forced a fortnight’s delay.
Months later, an electrical fault disabled its engine controls on expedition Operation Endurance to the sub-Antarctic Campbell Islands. The navy was forced to transfer VIPs, including then-Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand, to its sister ship mid-mission.
Despite its early unreliability, Otago carved out a reputation in heavy seas, going viral in 2016 when dramatic footage emerged of the vessel plunging through 15-metre swells and 148km/h winds in the Southern Ocean.
Andrea Vance is national affairs editor based in Wellington, covering politics, the environment and national investigations.
-The Post
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