Beach Haven's play boat has been permanently removed from its seaside home.

After 40 years of doubling as a "pirate ship", a treasured children's play boat is deemed a "public hazard" by council officers and will be pulled out of the water of a quiet city bay forever.

Despite a community campaign on Auckland's North Shore to save the boat, the Kaipatiki Local Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to retire it, on the basis of two risk assessments produced by Auckland Council.

Known as "Frank Larking's Boat", news back in March it would be removed sparked outrage in the Beach Haven community, and a petition, signed by 1700 people, compelled the board to request Auckland Council investigate options for retaining it.

LAINE MOGER/FAIRFAX NZ Siblings Tate, 4, left, and Helena Gotty, 6, were part of the campaign to save the boat.

​At the August 16 meeting, Ruth Jackson, who initiated a community campaign, asked the board to judge the two reports' findings with "commonsense and sensibility".

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The hazards consultants identified were the ladder, the rope and the water depth, among other wear-and-tear issues.

LAINE MOGER/FAIRFAX NZ The Save Frank Larking's Boat Facebook campaign was unsuccessful in keeping the boat in the water.

"For 40 years, the boat has lived at the beach, but there have been no reported incidents," Jackson told the board.

"You can't eliminate every hazard, everywhere. That is not the real world."

Auckland Council's renewals coordinator Kaityn White said the underlying issue is the boat's location and the tidal area.

Board member Lindsay Waugh suggested the boat, originally gifted to the community, be transferred back to the community to look after.

However, White said, so long as it was on public land, Auckland Council had a duty of care.

As the boat is now officially labelled a risk, the Kaipatiki Local Board could now be liable for any future injury.

The board agreed the play boat be established somewhere nearby as a memorial, and a "new beginning" for the boat will be discussed with the community.

Kaipatiki Local Board chairwoman Danielle Grant said it saddened her to make the decision.

In my heart, I stand with the community; but, as an elected member, I support the removal of the boat, Grant said.

"Whatever we do next, we do with you [the community]," she said. "But it won't be in the water."

Who was Frank Larking?

Former resident and historical figure Frank Larking lived in Beach Haven from 1949 until his death in October 14, 2008.

He was lauded for single-handedly creating a local beach, Hilders Park also known as Larking's Landing, reportedly working for 10 years carting mud, tyres and sand to build the beach from a rocky shelf in the area.

Many of the materials were transported from around the Waitemata Harbour in hundreds of trips in Larking's dinghy, an precursor to the play boat of today.

The Birkenhead Heritage Society states the play boat remaining in Beach Haven, was given to Larking to repair by a man at Herald Island.

It is believed to be concrete cast of a lifeboat from the HMS Niagara, which was sunk by a German mine in Northland in 1940.

The HMS Niagara was the boat that was thought to have bought the Spanish flu to New Zealand in 1918 because the ship was not quarantined.

After Larking repaired the boat, he gifted it to the children of Beach Haven for use as a play boat.

Larking spent 46 years on the Beach Haven Residents and Ratepayers Association and 40 years on the area's harbour board.