Falmouth Harbour Marina (Antigua)

Location

Falmouth Harbour, south coast of Antigua, at 17 00.75 N 061 46.73 W, on the English Harbour main road

Operator

Antigua Slipway Ltd, the family boatyard business in English Harbour since 1966. The marina was established in 1994

Berths

30 stern-to and 30 alongside, on wide concrete docks with vehicle access

Maximum LOA

330 ft, about 100 m, the figure the Antigua and Barbuda Yachting and Marine Association publishes for the vessel. The 535 ft on the marina's own site, and the 525 ft or 160 m in the listings, is the length of the superyacht quay built in the 2022 expansion, not a vessel maximum

Maximum draught

20 ft, about 6.1 m, agreed by every source and the figure that actually governs

Shore power

110 V, 208, 220 and 380 V three-phase per the trade association, with 400 V added on the marina's own site. Amperage is not published. Electricity is metered at USD 0.60 per kWh

Water

fresh water at the berths, metered at USD 0.15 per US gallon. Showers ashore USD 2 per person

Connectivity

free fibre-optic wifi across the marina. 24-hour security, parking, waste disposal, tender dock and crane-assisted container storage

Fuel

tax and duty-free ultra-low-sulphur diesel to the berth at up to 1,000 litres a minute, daily in high season and weekdays in low season, overnight on request. Price not published

VHF

channel 10. Marina office +1 268 460-6054

Berthing tariff, read August 2026 with no season year on the page: winter 1 November to 31 May, stern-to USD 3.50 per ft per day and alongside USD 6.50; summer 1 June to 31 October, stern-to USD 2.55 and alongside USD 4.65. Monthly rates are lower in each band

Customs status

English Harbour is a port of entry with Customs, Immigration and the Port Authority in one building, a walk over the hill from the marina. Online clearance through eSeaClear

National park

both harbours lie inside Nelson's Dockyard National Park, and National Parks Authority fees are compulsory on top of dockage and Port Authority fees. Visitor passes are published, at US$15 a day and US$100 for a season pass expiring at the end of the yachting season, EC$10 for locals and residents. The per-vessel charge on the yacht is not published anywhere

Neighbouring quays

Nelson's Dockyard Marina, 30 stern-to berths on bow moorings, run by the National Parks Authority on VHF 68; the former Antigua Yacht Club Marina, now the Antigua Superyacht Marina and Resort; and Catamaran Marina, to 200 ft and 15 ft draught

Haul-out

Antigua Slipway's marine railway takes 200 tons, to 150 ft length overall by 40 ft of beam by 14 ft of draft. Bailey's Boatyard runs a 70-ton travelift and an 80-ton Ascon lift; Jolly Harbour runs 75-ton and 85-ton travelifts and takes catamarans to 33 ft of beam; Shell Beach has 25 tons. Nothing on the island can lift a superyacht

Airport

V.C. Bird International (ANU) on the north coast, about 21.7 km and 35 to 45 minutes by road, with daily long-haul service to North America, year-round service to the United Kingdom and private jet handling. The only continental-European service, Condor from Frankfurt, is seasonal

Two harbours, five quays, and who runs which

Falmouth Harbour is a horseshoe-shaped natural bay on the south coast of Antigua, at 17 00.75 N 061 46.73 W. The village and port of Falmouth sit on the north shore, and English Harbour, the deeper and more famous inlet, lies immediately to the east. The two are separated by a low neck of land you can walk across in a quarter of an hour, and together they hold five separate berthing operations under four different managements. Falmouth Harbour Marina, the largest, is on the English Harbour main road on the east side of Falmouth Harbour and is operated by Antigua Slipway Ltd, the family boatyard business that has been in English Harbour since 1966. The marina itself was established in 1994 and the trade association describes it as the island's largest mega-yacht marina and the longest established of the modern ones.

Next door in Falmouth is the marina long known as the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, gutted by fire on 2 and 3 October 2023 during Tropical Storm Philippe and since rebuilt and rebranded as the Antigua Superyacht Marina and Resort, with a further complex due to start construction in summer 2026. Antigua Slipway keeps its own quay and fuel dock at English Harbour alongside the boatyard, which is the fifth of the berthing operations and the one most often left off the list. At the north end of Falmouth Harbour, Catamaran Marina is a family-run operation taking yachts to 200 ft with 15 ft of draught. And over the hill in English Harbour, the marina inside Nelson's Dockyard is run by the National Parks Authority, a statutory not-for-profit corporation established under the 1984 National Parks Act, which puts its proceeds into restoration, conservation and archaeology. That is the arrangement to understand before you book: you are choosing between a commercial superyacht dock, a rebuilt resort marina, a boatyard quay, a small family quay and a state heritage body, all inside one national park, and every one of them adds National Parks Authority fees to your bill.

The marina itself, and the length figure that is really a quay

Falmouth Harbour Marina has thirty stern-to berths and thirty alongside, on wide concrete docks with vehicle access good enough for most sizes of truck, which matters more than it sounds when you are loading a refit or a charter turnaround. Electricity is available at 110 V, 208, 220 and 380 three-phase according to the trade association, and the marina's own site adds 400 V; its berth request form offers single-phase 120 V, single-phase 220 V and three-phase 380 V. Nobody publishes the amperage. There is fresh water at the berths, free fibre-optic wifi across the site, 24-hour security, parking, waste disposal, a tender dock and crane-assisted container storage. The marina works VHF channel 10.

The maximum length looks like an unresolved argument and is not one, and an owner of a very large yacht needs to know why before he plans a season. Falmouth Harbour Marina's own website says 535 ft, about 163 m, and repeats it in its own frequently asked questions. The Antigua and Barbuda Yachting and Marine Association, the trade body, states that yachts up to 330 ft, about 100 m, can be catered for stern-to and alongside. The two figures are not measuring the same thing. All At Sea, reporting the expansion that had been delayed by COVID, describes the marina's new custom-built concrete superyacht dock as 535 ft in length by 20 ft in width, on piles driven some 40 ft into the seabed. The 535 ft is the length of the quay. The 525 ft that Yachting Pages carries is the same wall rounded the other way, printed as berths up to 160 metres, and Antigua's own press reported the same opening. That leaves 330 ft as the only published figure that describes a vessel, and it is the number to plan against; 535 ft is the amount of concrete the marina has to lay a fleet along. What every source does agree on is the draught: 20 ft, about 6.1 m, and that is the figure that will actually stop you. Anyone over about 100 m should treat the website headline as a conversation to have with the dockmaster rather than a booking to make.

It publishes its dockage, which almost nothing in the Caribbean does, and then adds a compulsory national park fee that nobody publishes at all.

The approach, Bishop Shoal, and clearing in on foot

Antigua uses IALA B buoyage, which is the American convention and the opposite of Europe: red buoys to starboard on entry, green to port. Get that wrong on arrival after an ocean crossing and Bishop Shoal will remind you. The shoal lies to the east of the Falmouth Harbour entrance, is marked by a large red buoy which you leave to starboard, and breaks visibly in anything but the calmest water. Once past it, leave the next red buoy to port and follow the buoyed channel, which leads to both the Antigua Superyacht Marina and Falmouth Harbour Marina. Catamaran Marina is the other way, red buoy to starboard, lining up two orange triangles on the hillside, with leading lights for a night entry. You may anchor almost anywhere in the harbour so long as you stay clear of the channels and of the exclusion area in front of the two big marina docks.

The clearance procedure is the best thing about arriving here and it is worth spelling out. Call the Coastguard on VHF 16 from six hours out to request entry into Antiguan and Barbudan waters. Come alongside and fly the Q flag. Port Health clears the vessel before anything else happens and nobody but the master goes ashore until entry is complete. Then it is Customs, Immigration with the ED cards and six copies of the crew and passenger lists, back to Customs, and finally the Port Authority to pay entrance, rubbish disposal, anchorage or dockage and the cruising permit. All three authorities sit in the same building at English Harbour, and a crew berthed in Falmouth walks over the hill to do it. Clearing out reverses the order, starts at the Port Authority, needs four copies of the lists, and you have 24 hours to leave once it is done. The online route is eSeaClear. Every vessel in Antiguan waters must carry a valid cruising permit, and receipts for Port and National Parks fees must be produced even if you leave the country through a different port.

What a berth costs, and the fee you cannot look up

Falmouth Harbour Marina publishes a rate card, which is unusual in the Caribbean superyacht market and is a genuine reason to deal with it. Read on 6 August 2026, and carrying no season year on the page, the rates run per foot per day in US dollars. Winter, 1 November to 31 May: stern-to USD 3.50 daily and USD 3.20 on a monthly basis, alongside USD 6.50 daily and USD 5.95 monthly. Summer, 1 June to 31 October: stern-to USD 2.55 daily and USD 2.45 monthly, alongside USD 4.65 daily and USD 4.44 monthly. Fees are payable in advance, checkout is noon, and Visa and Mastercard are taken. One caution: the terms line under the table says alongside rates are double, which does not match the table, because double the winter stern-to rate would be USD 7.00 and not USD 6.50. Get the number confirmed in writing before you arrive.

In money, a 40 m yacht is 131 ft, so a winter night alongside is about USD 852 and stern-to about USD 459; the same yacht in summer alongside is about USD 609. A 60 m yacht at 197 ft pays roughly USD 1,280 a night alongside in winter. Those are Yotters calculations on the published rate and not quotations. On top of them sit three charges you cannot price from any public source. Electricity is metered at USD 0.60 per kWh and water at USD 0.15 per US gallon, which are published. National Parks Authority fees are only half published. They are compulsory for every vessel anchored in English or Falmouth Harbour or berthed at any of the five quays inside the park. The park's visitor passes are on the record: Antigua News Room, reporting the Authority in August 2022, gives US$15 for a visitor day pass and US$100 for a season pass that expires at the end of the yachting season, with EC$10 for locals and residents, EC$50 for a one-year pass and EC$200 for a family pass covering up to six people. For a crew of eight that is US$120 a visit or US$800 for the season. What is not published anywhere is the per-vessel charge on the yacht itself: the Authority carries no fee schedule on its own site and the trade association's clearance page names the obligation without a figure. Port Authority entrance, rubbish and cruising permit fees are likewise unpublished. The yacht agency Med Yacht Services, in its 2026 Antigua fee sheet, budgets customs clearance at USD 250 to 550 and immigration including escort at USD 250 to 500, and lists National Park fees simply as at cost. That is the closest thing to a public number that exists.

Fuel, power, water and what the duty-free actually covers

Duty-free fuel is available at every marina in Falmouth and English Harbour, which is the standard arrangement for yachts in transit through Antigua and one of the reasons the fleet stops here rather than somewhere else in the chain. Falmouth Harbour Marina delivers tax and duty-free ultra-low-sulphur diesel directly to the berth at flow rates of up to 1,000 litres a minute, which will bunker a large motor yacht inside a working day. Service is daily through the high season and weekdays only in the low season, with overnight bunkering available on request. Neighbouring quays are less industrial about it: the marina now trading as the Antigua Superyacht Marina supplies duty-free diesel by mobile pump, and Antigua Slipway and Catamaran Marina both run fuel docks.

What the marina does not do is publish a fuel price, and neither does anyone else in the harbour, so a captain plans a bunker against a fresh quote rather than a posted rate. That is the pattern across the whole cost base here. Metered utilities are published and modest, at USD 0.60 per kWh and USD 0.15 per US gallon of water, with showers ashore at USD 2 a head. Everything else is quoted. Antigua imports essentially all its fuel, food and hardware, and the island's largest supermarket, Epicurean Fine Foods, is at Jolly Harbour and St John's on the other side of the island rather than in Falmouth, where you have the Dockside Supermarket in Nelson's Dockyard and Bailey's near the Catamaran Marina for everyday shopping. Owners provisioning a charter here should expect to pay a landed-import premium on almost everything and to build a run across the island into the schedule.

The yard question, and the 200-ton ceiling

This is the structural weakness of Falmouth and English Harbour and no amount of dock length changes it. The marine trades within walking distance are genuinely dense for a Caribbean port: marine engineering, electronics, rigging, a sail loft, a dive shop and several chandleries, plus yacht carpentry and refit services around Nelson's Dockyard, so routine work, running repairs and a charter refit between seasons are all straightforward. What you cannot do is get out of the water. Antigua Slipway, which also runs Falmouth Harbour Marina, states a maximum haul-out capacity of 200 tons for vessels up to 150 ft length overall by 40 ft of beam by 14 ft of draft on its marine railway, and it calls itself the most complete boatyard in the Caribbean. Bailey's Boatyard at the north end of Falmouth Harbour runs a 70-ton travelift and an 80-ton Ascon lift and hauls boats to 12 ft of draught. Across the island, Jolly Harbour has two travelifts, 75 tons and 85 tons, and takes catamarans to 33 ft of beam; Shell Beach has 25 tons.

Two hundred tons is a large sailing yacht or a modest motor yacht. It is not a superyacht, and every yacht at the top end of the Falmouth quay displaces several times it. Antigua is a place to run a big boat from, not a place to lift one, and paint, steel and structural work leave the country. That may be about to improve at the margin: Antigua Slipway announced a US$2.5 million redevelopment of its marine railway, replacing the ageing underwater structure with a modern steel system built to international engineering standards, with construction scheduled to begin in June 2026, 50 to 60 jobs during the build, and a stated ambition to become the largest single-vessel yacht haul-out facility in the Caribbean, serving tugs and commercial work boats from St John's as well as yachts. No tonnage has been attached to the 2026 tranche itself. What the yard did say when it completed phase one in March 2023, a rebuilt railway cradle good for 100 ft and 100 tons, is that phase two, the underwater railway renovation, would take haul and launch capacity to 200 ft length overall and 270 tons. That is the number to watch, and until the steel is in the water, plan a slipping on the 200-ton figure.

The calendar, and the six months when the harbour empties

Two fixed dates take the entire harbour and they are the reason to book early or stay away. Only one of them is still ahead. The Antigua Charter Yacht Show runs 4 to 9 December 2026, its 65th edition, organised by the Antigua and Barbuda Yachting and Marine Association and held across three quays at once: Nelson's Dockyard Marina, Falmouth Harbour Marina and the Antigua Yacht Club Marina. It has run since 1961, brings around a hundred charter yachts, and is the event at which the Caribbean charter season is actually sold. The spring racing has already been and gone this year. The Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta ran 15 to 20 April 2026 and Antigua Sailing Week followed on 22 to 26 April 2026, its 57th edition, cut to a shorter four-day format with point-to-point courses around the island and based across English and Falmouth Harbours. Anyone planning the next season should hold the 2027 dates instead: the Classics on 14 to 19 April 2027 and Sailing Week, the 58th edition, on 21 to 25 April 2027. Antigua is also the Atlantic finish line: the RORC Transatlantic Race that left Lanzarote on 11 January 2026 with 21 teams finished here.

Then it stops. The Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November with the peak from August to October, and the yachting economy of both harbours goes with it. Crewed charter inventory leaves for the Mediterranean, restaurants and businesses close for the summer, and the marina's own operations reflect it: bunkering drops from daily service to weekdays only, and the tariff falls by roughly 27 per cent on stern-to and 28 per cent alongside. English Harbour has a long reputation as a hurricane hole and it is a good one, but it is not a guarantee against a direct hit and nobody sensible leaves a yacht here unattended without a written hurricane plan. Bailey's Boatyard sells hurricane storage cradles accepted by all the major yacht insurers and prices its summer storage accordingly. The October 2023 fire, which destroyed the main Antigua Yacht Club Marina building during Tropical Storm Philippe and was locally attributed to a lightning strike, is the reminder of what a storm season can do to the shoreside even when the boats survive.

Ashore, and the honest cost of being here

The compensation for all of the above is that this is one of the most enjoyable places in the Caribbean to keep a boat. Nelson's Dockyard, inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 as the Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites, is the only continuously working Georgian naval yard in the world and it is a fifteen-minute walk from the marina, with a hotel, restaurants, a chandlery and a supermarket inside its walls. Eating is better than the harbour's size suggests: Cloggy's at the yacht club, run by Ton and Vanessa Smit, is consistently the highest-rated table in Falmouth, Boom sits on the marina, and Pillars is in the Admiral's Inn inside the Dockyard, with Trappas and Colibri filling out the middle. The set piece is Shirley Heights Lookout above the harbour, where the Sunday party runs 1600 to 2200 with a steel pan band until 1900 and reggae after it, for USD 10 or EC 25 on the gate, and a quieter Thursday reggae evening at the same price.

Two honest caveats about being ashore. The airport is not on the harbour. V.C. Bird International is on the north coast, about 21.7 km and 35 to 45 minutes away by road, and while it does carry daily long-haul service to North America and year-round service to the United Kingdom plus private jet handling, the only continental-European link is seasonal, Condor from Frankfurt, and every crew change and every guest arrival is an hour of driving each way. Taxi fares are set by the Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board on a zone basis, but the current schedule is not published anywhere and the copies circulating online are years out of date, so agree the fare with the dispatcher before you get in the car. And security is not what it was: Noonsite, drawing on cruiser reports and the Caribbean Safety and Security Net, records that thefts of dinghies, outboards and loose gear are rising across many Caribbean ports including this one, and that even locked and secured hardware is being taken. Lift the tender at night.

لمين هو: The owner running a large yacht through a Caribbean winter who wants a published rate, duty-free fuel at the berth and the whole charter market next door, and who will send the boat elsewhere the moment it needs lifting.