Bali's first superyacht marina opens Indonesia to 90m charter
The berth was always the missing piece
Indonesia has sat on charter wish lists for years for its diving and its islands, but the fleet that could actually reach it stayed small because there was nowhere proper to base a large yacht. That is what Bali Gapura Marina at Benoa is built to change. The project, from PT Marina Development Indonesia and state port operator Pelindo, broke ground on 22 May 2025 and covers 33,000 square metres inside the Bali Maritime Tourism Hub, about 15 minutes from the airport.
The plan runs to 180 berths, 50 of them sized for superyachts of 24 to 90 metres, with a 200-ton travel lift, a fuelling station and metered power and water at every pontoon. A first dock opened for basic services in late 2025, full technical facilities are due by mid-2026 and the complete 180-berth marina is scheduled to be running by the third quarter of 2026. BOAT International and SuperyachtNews both report the same phased timeline.
Why one marina resets a whole cruising ground
For a charter yacht, Indonesia's appeal was never in doubt. The archipelago spreads across 17,000 islands, holds Komodo and the reefs of Raja Ampat, and sits outside the main hurricane and typhoon belts, which lets the season run close to year-round. The problem was support. Without a full-service base a 70 or 80 metre yacht had to carry everything, plan fuel far ahead and clear officials port by port.
A marina that can lift 200 tons, fuel a large hull and handle immigration and customs at a single welcome station turns that calculus around. It gives management companies a reason to send boats east for the winter rather than leave them in the Mediterranean or send them across to the Caribbean. Ulf Backlund, president director of the developer, told SuperyachtNews the country deserved a base fit for its status as the "new yachting paradise".
What owners and charterers should check
There are caveats worth reading before a 2026 booking. Foreign yachts still need a CAIT clearance to cruise Indonesian waters, and an itinerary has to be built around that paperwork rather than assumed. Until the full marina is signed off, early visitors are working with a partial facility, so a charter should be pinned to the phase that is actually open when it runs.
For a buyer weighing an explorer or a long-range motor yacht, the marina changes the maths on where such a boat can earn. A credible Asian base shortens the empty passages that eat a charter yacht's calendar and widens the map of places it can be marketed. The berths come online in stages through 2026, so the smart move is to treat that timeline as a schedule to verify, not a date to bank on.