HMNZS Waikato (F-55)

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Career (New Zealand) RNZN Ensign
Name: HMNZS Waikato (F-55)
Namesake: Waikato province of New Zealand
Operator: Royal New Zealand Navy
Builder: Harland and Wolff
Laid down: January 1964
Commissioned: September 1966
Decommissioned: 1998
Refit: Major refit 1986-88
Homeport: Devonport, Auckland
Nickname: The mighty Y
Fate: Sunk on 18 December 2000 as an artificial reef
General characteristics
Class and type: Leander class frigate
Displacement: 2,450 tons standard
3,200 tons full load
Length: 372 feet (113 m)
Beam: 41 feet (12 m)
Draught: 19 feet (6 m)
Installed power: 30,000 shp
Propulsion: 2 × Babcock and Wilcox boilers delivering steam to
2 x English Electric geared steam turbines, 30,000 shp to 2 shafts
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h)
Range: 4,600 nautical miles (8,520 km) at 15 knots
Complement: 18+248
Sensors and
processing systems:
Type 965 air search radar
Armament: 2 × 4.5 in (114 mm) guns in twin Mk6 mounting
1 × quadruple Sea Cat SAM launcher
2 × Mark 32 torpedo tubes for Mark 46 torpedoes
Aircraft carried: Originally a Wasp helicopter, later a Kaman SH-2G

HMNZS Waikato (F55) was a Leander Batch 2TA frigate of the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was one of two Leanders built for the RNZN the other being the Batch 3 HMNZS Canterbury. She was one of two New Zealand ships which relieved British ships of the Armilla patrol during the Falklands conflict freeing British ships for deployment.

The HMNZS Waikato was decommissioned from the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1998 and bought from the Government for $1. She was stripped in the Northland port of Opua and sunk off the coast of Tutukaka on 18 December 2000 as an artificial reef. In 2002, the sunken Waikato's bow was separated from the rest of the ship in heavy weather.

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