Bahia Mar Yachting Center (Fort Lauderdale)
| Location | 801 Seabreeze Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316, on the Intracoastal Waterway directly across A1A from Fort Lauderdale beach |
|---|---|
| Berths | Suntex Marinas and BOAT International describe more than 250 slips; Lake.com's own listing gives 240. Neither source reconciles the gap |
| Dockage | about 915 metres (3,000 feet) of parallel dock plus roughly 1,500 metres (5,000-plus feet) of floating docks, two figures that corroborate each other reasonably well |
| Vessel range | to 90 metres (300 feet) LOA |
| Depth | 16.0 ft at the approach and along the main wharf face; 7 to 14 ft alongside the parallel dock; the finger piers inside the basins shoal to 11 ft and, in places, 5.5 ft |
| VHF | channel 16 for docking assistance |
| Rates | quoted at USD 4.00 to 7.50 per foot per day in high season, on the greater of vessel length or slip length; catamarans are billed for two slips; megayacht rates can run past USD 7 per foot |
| Foreign Trade Zone | designated 16 June 2017, the second yacht-specific FTZ in the United States after Lauderdale Marine Center, letting brokers sell foreign-flagged yachts to US buyers in US waters without import duty |
| Ownership | the land is city-owned; in 2023 Fort Lauderdale granted a 100-year master lease to Rahn Bahia Mar LLC (the Tate brothers with Sergio Rok and the Perez family's Related Group), replacing roughly USD 1.5 million a year in rent with an average USD 15.5 million |
| Redevelopment | a USD 1 billion plan for 256 hotel rooms, 360 condominiums and 88,000 sq ft of commercial space, with phase-one construction expected to break ground in 2026 or 2027 |
| Marina operator | the marina itself is presented under the Suntex Marinas network for booking and pricing across Fort Lauderdale |
| Host of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, 28 October to 1 November 2026, the 67th edition, one of seven show sites and the only one where FTZ transactions can be completed | |
| Marina office | +1 954-627-6309 |
| History | the fictional Travis McGee houseboat Busted Flush was assigned Slip F-18 in John D. MacDonald's novels; the American Library Association designated it a Literary Landmark in February 1987 |
A city berth with the beach across the street
Bahia Mar Yachting Center sits at 801 Seabreeze Boulevard on Fort Lauderdale's barrier island, its docks running along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway with the public beach directly across A1A. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is 15 to 20 minutes away by road, one of the shortest airport runs of any major yachting hub anywhere, and it is a large part of why the city calls itself the Yachting Capital of the World with a straight face.
The marina carries more than 250 berths by Suntex Marinas' and BOAT International's own count, though a Lake.com directory listing puts the figure at 240 and nobody Yotters could find reconciles the two. What both sides agree on is scale: roughly 915 metres of parallel dock plus about 1,500 metres of floating dockage, and a vessel range up to 90 metres, all inside walking distance of Las Olas Boulevard's restaurants to the north and the resort's own pool, tennis and pickleball courts on site.
What it actually costs
Dockage is quoted at USD 4.00 to 7.50 per foot per day in high season, charged on whichever is greater, the boat's own length or the length of the slip assigned to it, and a catamaran is billed for two slips regardless of its beam. The bottom of that range is reported to be available mainly to boats committing to a month or longer, and megayacht rates in season are reported to run past USD 7 a foot.
No source Yotters could find, including the marina's own site, publishes a current rate card broken out by length band the way ACI does across its Croatian marinas or IGY does at some of its own properties. The range above is triangulated from two independent trade sources rather than an official tariff, and a specific quote for a specific boat still has to come from the marina office on +1 954-627-6309.
The city's rent went from about USD 1.5 million a year to an average of USD 15.5 million. The plan behind that number is a USD 1 billion hotel, condo and marina village on the same 39 acres a transient berth holder ties up on today.
The Foreign Trade Zone that makes this marina different
Bahia Mar became a privately managed US Foreign Trade Zone on 16 June 2017, the second yacht-specific FTZ in the country after Lauderdale Marine Center opened one days earlier. The designation lets brokers market and sell a foreign-flagged superyacht to a US buyer while the vessel sits in US waters, without the buyer paying import duty at the point of sale, a genuinely unusual piece of federal trade infrastructure sitting inside an ordinary transient marina.
The practical result is that Bahia Mar is the only site among the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show's seven 2026 locations where an FTZ brokerage transaction can be closed during the show itself. A private owner simply tying up for a week never touches this machinery directly, but it is part of why the marina carries the brokerage, customs and legal infrastructure of a facility several times its transient berth count, and why the show treats this particular dock as its anchor rather than an interchangeable venue.
A hundred-year lease, and a billion-dollar plan behind the gate
The marina sits on city-owned land, and in 2023 Fort Lauderdale's commission approved a 100-year master lease to Rahn Bahia Mar LLC, a partnership of the Tate brothers with Sergio Rok and the Perez family's Related Group. The new lease raised the city's take from roughly USD 1.5 million a year to an average of USD 15.5 million, in exchange for the right to build out 39 acres with 256 new hotel rooms, 360 condominium units and 88,000 sq ft of commercial space under a plan valued near USD 1 billion.
Reporting in 2026 put phase one, a hotel and two condominium towers, on track to break ground later in 2026 or in early 2027. Nothing in any source Yotters reviewed says what happens to transient dockage, berth counts or pricing once that construction actually starts on a site this size; a yacht owner weighing anything longer than a short-term stay should ask the marina office directly what the current phasing means for the water side of the property before committing to a season.
The week the whole marina turns into a boat show
The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs 28 October to 1 November 2026, its 67th consecutive year, across seven locations that also include Las Olas Marina, Hall of Fame Marina, the SuperYacht Village at Pier 66 South, Pier 66 Marina, the Broward County Convention Center and the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina, all on one ticket. Bahia Mar has been the show's anchor site since the beginning, and it is the only one of the seven where a Foreign Trade Zone transaction can be completed on the spot.
For a transient boat that has nothing to do with the show, this is simply the single week of the year to avoid: the marina, the surrounding streets and every restaurant within reach fill to capacity, and normal transient dockage effectively disappears. Outside that week, the marina runs as an ordinary, if unusually large, Fort Lauderdale transient stop.
The slip a novelist made famous
John D. MacDonald opened his Travis McGee series with The Deep Blue Good-by in 1964, and gave his fictional salvage consultant a houseboat, the Busted Flush, permanently berthed at Bahia Mar's Slip F-18, even though the dock's F row did not actually exist when the first novel was written. Across 21 novels the slip became one of the best-known fictional addresses in American crime writing, and in February 1987 the American Library Association designated it a Literary Landmark, the kind of honour normally reserved for a writer's home or an actual archive rather than a numbered marina berth.
The honour has not aged as well as the novels. Fort Lauderdale Magazine reports that a subsequent USD 10 million marina renovation left the bronze marker at F-18 harder to find, and other accounts describe the plaque as removed altogether by owners who did not value the association. A reader who goes looking for it today should not expect much more than the slip number itself and a good story to tell the dockhands.
What the reviews actually say
Across Waterway Guide and Dockwa, the recurring praise is specific and consistent: nice floating docks, and dockhands described as friendly and professional through fuelling, check-in and check-out, with several visitors naming Bahia Mar as one of their favourite Fort Lauderdale stops. That is a meaningfully positive baseline for a marina this size and this commercially complex.
The complaints cluster around booking friction rather than the docks themselves: a DocuSign dockage agreement guests found redundant for a short stay, a same-day mobile booking flow reviewers called unfriendly, at least one gate-access app failure that needed a security override to resolve, and a Yelp review reporting the women's shower block out of action because of a broken card reader. None of this is dangerous or unusual for a marina of Bahia Mar's scale, but it is the honest gap between the marina's five-star brochure and its day-to-day administration.
Depths, and the number that needs checking twice
The marina's own quoted depth, 16.0 ft at the approach and along the main wharf face, is a genuinely deep number for a US Intracoastal marina and comfortably covers most motor yachts up to 90 metres. It is not, however, the depth everywhere inside the property: the finger piers within the basins are reported at 7 to 14 ft alongside, shoaling in places to 11 ft and, at the shallowest reported points, 5.5 ft.
A deep-draught yacht should treat the 16.0 ft figure as the channel and main-dock number, confirm the actual depth of the specific slip it has been assigned, and call the marina office on VHF channel 16 or by phone before committing to a berth deep inside one of the basins. This is a routine precaution at any large US marina built up over decades in phases, and Bahia Mar's own docks are exactly that: a mix of older parallel dock and newer floating dock added at different times.
En tierra, accesos y reservas
| Getting there | Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) is about 15 to 20 minutes by road, one of the shortest airport-to-marina runs of any major yachting hub in the world, which is a large part of why Bahia Mar and Fort Lauderdale generally market themselves as the Yachting Capital of the World. The marina sits at 801 Seabreeze Boulevard on the barrier island, with Fort Lauderdale's public beach directly across A1A and Las Olas Boulevard's restaurants and shops a short walk or water taxi ride north. |
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| Arriving by sea | Call the marina on VHF channel 16 for docking assistance. The approach and dockside depth is quoted at 16.0 ft, but that figure is for the main channel and the face of the parallel dock; the finger piers inside the basins are shallower, from 11 ft down to 5.5 ft in places, so a deep-draught yacht should confirm its specific berth's depth before committing rather than trusting the headline number. Bahia Mar sits directly on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, a short run north of Port Everglades and the ocean inlet, which is the route most arriving yachts actually use. |
| How you actually reserve a berth | Transient dockage is bookable through Dockwa, which lists Bahia Mar Yachting Center alongside a separate Dockwa listing for 'Marina Village at Bahia Mar', a reminder that the marina is not one undifferentiated basin but several named docks under one address. Reviewers booking this way report being asked to sign a DocuSign dockage agreement even for a short stay, and describe the same-day, phone-based booking flow as clumsy; anything beyond a short transient stay is better arranged by phone with the marina office on +1 954-627-6309. Because the site is presented under the Suntex Marinas network, a captain already holding a Suntex account elsewhere in Fort Lauderdale can check availability and pricing across several marinas including this one from a single dashboard. |
| What a berth costs | Quoted dockage runs USD 4.00 to 7.50 per foot per day in high season, charged on whichever is greater, the vessel's own length or the length of the slip it occupies, so a smaller yacht placed in an oversized slip pays for the slip. The lower end of that range is generally available only to boats negotiating a month or longer. A catamaran is billed for two slips regardless of its actual beam. Megayacht rates are reported to run past USD 7 per foot per day in season. None of the sources Yotters could find publish a single current rate card by length band the way a chain marina like ACI does; the range above is the best that can be verified from two independent trade sources, and an exact quote has to come from the marina office. |
| Fuel, power and what is extra | Bahia Mar offers high-speed fuelling, in-slip pump-out, marina-wide WiFi, a marine store and a dive shop, all standard inclusions rather than line-item extras at most transient marinas of this size. Shore power, cable television access and dock boxes are handled per the standard Suntex-network terms rather than a Bahia Mar-specific tariff Yotters could locate; a captain should confirm amperage and metering for a specific slip before arrival, since a facility this size mixes older and newly rebuilt docks. |
| Where to eat, and after dark | The marina sits inside a resort complex with its own restaurants, retail, a heated pool, tennis and pickleball courts and a gym, so a crew can eat, swim and provision without leaving the property. Fort Lauderdale beach is directly across A1A, and Las Olas Boulevard's much larger concentration of restaurants and bars is a short walk or water taxi north along the Intracoastal. The 2026 redevelopment plan promises a new waterfront restaurant and a public promenade as part of the marina village, none of which exists yet. |
| The fixed dates that fill it | The single date that matters most is the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, 28 October to 1 November 2026, the show's 67th edition and the anchor event of the whole marina's calendar; Bahia Mar is one of seven show locations and the only one where a Foreign Trade Zone brokerage transaction can be closed on the spot. A yacht that is not part of the show should expect the marina, the surrounding roads and every restaurant within a mile to be at capacity that week, and should book well outside it if the goal is a quiet transient stay. |
| What is NOT published | The berth count is unsettled between sources: Suntex's own marketing and BOAT International both say more than 250 slips, while the Lake.com directory listing says 240, and Yotters could not find a single authoritative current figure from the marina itself. No source publishes a current per-length rate card the way a chain marina does; the USD 4 to 7.50 per foot range is the best independently corroborated figure available, not an official tariff. Nothing is published about how transient operations will be affected once phase-one construction on the USD 1 billion redevelopment actually breaks ground, expected in 2026 or 2027, which is a real and current question for anyone considering more than a short-term berth here. |
Lo que cuentan armadores y tripulaciones
The docks and dockhands draw consistent praise
Waterway Guide and Dockwa reviewers repeatedly single out the floating docks as well kept and the dockhands as friendly and professional through fuelling, check-in and check-out, and several call it one of their favourite Fort Lauderdale stops.
Waterway Guide and Dockwa reviewersBooking and access friction shows up in the same reviews
Guests booking through Dockwa report a DocuSign agreement they found redundant for a short stay, a same-day mobile booking flow that is not user-friendly, and at least one gate-access app failure that needed a security override; a Yelp reviewer separately reported the women's shower block inaccessible because of a broken card reader.
Dockwa and Yelp reviewersIt is run first as the country's flagship boat show site
The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show has used Bahia Mar as its anchor venue since the show's first edition, now 67 years running, and it is the only one of the show's seven 2026 locations where a Foreign Trade Zone transaction can be completed, which explains why the marina's brokerage and FTZ infrastructure is built to a scale an individual transient berth holder never sees.
FLIBS and SuperyachtNewsA hundred-year lease has replaced the old rent, and construction is coming
The city's 2023 master lease to Rahn Bahia Mar LLC raised the ground rent from about USD 1.5 million a year to an average of USD 15.5 million across a $1 billion redevelopment, with phase one, a hotel and two condo towers, expected to break ground in 2026 or 2027; a transient berth here is booked inside what is now an active construction site in waiting.
WLRN and NBC 6 South Florida reportingA slip has carried a literary reputation for four decades
John D. MacDonald docked his fictional salvage consultant Travis McGee's houseboat, the Busted Flush, at Slip F-18 from the first of the 21 Travis McGee novels in 1964; the American Library Association made it a Literary Landmark in 1987, though the plaque was later taken down by a subsequent owner and is now hard to find.
United for Libraries (ALA) and Fort Lauderdale Magazine
Lo bueno y lo que conviene vigilar
Puntos fuertes
- One of the very few Foreign Trade Zone marinas in the worldDesignated 16 June 2017, only the second yacht-specific FTZ in the United States, letting a foreign-flagged yacht be sold to a US buyer here without import duty, a genuine piece of trade infrastructure most marinas of any size never carry.
- The dockhands and the docks are consistently well reviewedWaterway Guide and Dockwa reviewers repeatedly praise the floating docks and describe the dock staff as friendly and professional through fuelling and check-in and check-out.
- Genuinely deep water and a very short airport run16.0 ft at the approach and main wharf, comfortably covering vessels to 90 metres, with Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport 15 to 20 minutes away by road.
- Full resort amenities inside the marina gateA heated pool, tennis and pickleball courts, a gym, restaurants, shops, a dive shop and high-speed fuelling and pump-out are all on site, with the public beach directly across the street.
- The anchor site of the country's flagship boat showBahia Mar has hosted the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show every year since its founding, 67 editions running, and is the only one of the show's seven 2026 sites where an FTZ sale can be completed on the spot.
A tener en cuenta
- Nobody agrees on how many berths there areSuntex Marinas and BOAT International say more than 250; the Lake.com directory listing says 240; no current figure from the marina itself resolves it.
- No published rate card, only a reported rangeUSD 4.00 to 7.50 per foot per day in high season is the best two independent trade sources give, not an official tariff; a real quote requires calling the marina office.
- A billion-dollar redevelopment is coming, with no published transition planConstruction on the USD 1 billion hotel, condo and marina-village plan is expected to break ground in 2026 or 2027; nothing published says what happens to transient dockage, pricing or berth counts once it does.
- Booking friction shows up repeatedly in reviewsA DocuSign agreement guests found redundant for short stays, an unfriendly same-day mobile booking flow, a gate-access app failure needing a security override, and a broken shower-block card reader.
- Depth varies sharply inside the propertyThe headline 16.0 ft is the channel and main-wharf figure; finger piers inside the basins run 7 to 14 ft and shoal to 5.5 ft in places, so a deep-draught yacht must confirm its actual assigned slip.
- The literary landmark it was once proud of is now hard to findSlip F-18's Travis McGee plaque, designated in 1987, has reportedly been removed or obscured by later renovation and ownership changes.
Para quién es: An owner or captain who wants a deep-water, full-amenity Fort Lauderdale berth with the beach across the street and genuine brokerage and Foreign Trade Zone infrastructure on site, and who is either coming for the boat show itself or is comfortable booking a transient stay rather than a long-term one while a billion-dollar redevelopment works out what the marina looks like next.