Marina di Cala del Forte (Ventimiglia)

• Location: Ventimiglia, western Liguria, Italy, 7.9 nautical miles from Monaco
• Operator: Ports of Monaco, through its subsidiary Societe Monegasque Internationale Portuaire, which acquired the concession in 2016
• Opened: 2 July 2021
• Berths: 180, from 6.5m up to 76m on the marina's own published figures
• Concession: runs to 2094, described by the operator as the longest in the Mediterranean
• Berth tenure: select berths are sold on a 40-year lease, and generate rental income through the Ports of Monaco reservation system when the owner is away
• Security: 24/7 service with 107 surveillance cameras, and 24/7 mooring assistance on VHF channel 73
• Border control: a Border Police service on site issuing entry and exit stamps and shore passes for non-Schengen crew
• Waste: black water pump-out free of charge at any time for yachts over 24m
• Shipyard on site: Cantieri di Imperia, for yachts to 45m, with a 180-tonne travel lift and a heated spray booth
• Transfer: the Monaco One shuttle covers Port Hercule to Cala del Forte in 15 minutes at 45 knots, for up to 11 passengers
• Airports: Nice international 45km by motorway, Monaco Heliport 24km

Built because Monaco ran out of water

Ports of Monaco has run Port Hercule and Fontvieille for the principality since 2002, and by the middle of the last decade both were saturated. In 2016 it created a subsidiary, the Societe Monegasque Internationale Portuaire, and bought the concession at Ventimiglia across the Italian border. The marina opened on 2 July 2021 after a full rebuild of the basin. The stated intention was to extend Monaco's berthing capacity onto ground where there was room to build.

What that means for an owner is that Cala del Forte is not an Italian marina that happens to be near Monaco. It is operated entirely by Ports of Monaco, to the same procedures and standards as the harbours in the principality, with the same reservation system and the same institutional owner behind it. The concession runs to 2094, which the operator describes as the longest in the Mediterranean. That length is the reason berths here can be sold as an asset at all.

Eight miles from Port Hercule

The marina sits at Ventimiglia in western Liguria, a few kilometres inside the Italian border and 7.9 nautical miles from Monaco by sea. Approach is straightforward along an open, deep coast with no channel and no bar, and the basin is a purpose-built artificial harbour behind new breakwaters. Mooring assistance is on duty around the clock and works on VHF channel 73. Ventimiglia is 45 kilometres from Nice airport by motorway and 24 from the Monaco heliport.

The transfer arrangement is the part that separates this from any other Riviera marina. Ports of Monaco operates the Monaco One, a 12-metre carbon and glass catamaran that runs Port Hercule to Cala del Forte in fifteen minutes at 45 knots and carries up to eleven passengers, reserved for Ports of Monaco and Cala del Forte clients and bookable as often as required. An owner can therefore keep the yacht in Italy and treat Monaco as the front door. During Grand Prix week and the Yacht Show that arithmetic becomes very attractive.

Ports of Monaco built a marina in Italy and put a 45-knot shuttle between them, which is as close to a Monaco berth as most owners will get.

One hundred and eighty berths, and what fits

The marina publishes 180 berths running from 6.5 metres up to 76 metres, which makes it a mixed-fleet harbour with a serious large-yacht end. Some third-party listings put the ceiling at 70 metres, and the marina's own figure is the one to work from. The Molo d'Onore, the honour quay, takes the largest arrivals, and the Yacht Club de Monaco's flagship schooner Tuiga was the first yacht alongside it in October 2020 ahead of the opening.

Because Cala del Forte was designed around Monaco's overflow, the fleet that uses it is largely the fleet that would otherwise be in Port Hercule. Summer is busy. What an owner gets that Monaco cannot supply is certainty, because a berth here can be held outright for four decades. Availability for visitors depends on how many leaseholders are away, and that inventory is coordinated centrally.

Buying a berth instead of renting one

This is one of the few marinas on the Mediterranean coast where an owner is invited to buy. Rights to selected berths are conceded on a 40-year basis, and the operator markets them as entry into a small club of berth owners. When the owner is not using his berth, Ports of Monaco places it through its centralised reservation system and the berth produces rental income. That structure turns a running cost into an asset with a yield.

Short-term rental is also available for visitors, and the marina publishes short-term rates on application. Berths at Cala del Forte have traded on the open market through brokers since the marina opened, at lengths from the high teens to 60 metres. For an owner weighing a Monaco lease against this one, the comparison is between an address that costs a great deal and a berth that costs less and pays something back. The sea distance between the two is eight miles.

What is on the quay

Security runs around the clock with 107 cameras covering the site. There is a fuel station in the marina, storage units alongside the berths, and black water pump-out provided free of charge at any time for yachts over 24 metres, which is a more generous arrangement than most Italian marinas offer. Two AQUA superPower stations charge electric boats at up to 150 kW, and the car park has electric vehicle points among its 582 spaces. Electric golf carts move people and deliveries around the site.

The detail that gives away who built the place is the Border Police service on site, which issues entry and exit stamps and shore passes for crew from outside Schengen. Anyone who has spent a morning driving a Filipino deckhand to a police station in an Italian port will understand what that saves. There is an Amazon locker for parts and stores, electric barbecues for crew, and 35 shops with 15,000 square metres of promenade and gardens around the basin.

The yard on site

Cantieri di Imperia operates the shipyard inside the marina and handles yachts to 45 metres, with a 180-tonne travel lift, a 75-tonne motorised trailer, 2,800 square metres of yard, a 500 square metre covered hangar and a heated spray booth. The scope is proper refit work and not just antifouling, covering hull repair in metal, wood and composite, propulsion overhauls, metalwork, paint under surveyor supervision, and joinery. The yard runs a second site at Imperia along the coast.

For a yacht in the 30 to 45 metre bracket this is close to ideal, because the boat can lie on its own berth all winter and go up the lift when the slot comes free. Above 45 metres the work has to go elsewhere, with Genoa and La Spezia both within a day's run and Barcelona a night away. Italian yard rates on this coast are lower than French ones and the labour pool is deep.

Ventimiglia ashore, and the coast either side

Ventimiglia is a working Ligurian border town of about 24,000 with a medieval upper town on the hill, reached from the marina by a free vertical lift that opened in April 2022 and takes forty seconds. The Friday market is a regional institution. Immediately behind are the Hanbury botanical gardens at La Mortola and the hill villages of the Riviera dei Fiori, and the Italian food and wine are the reason a good number of Monaco residents drive over the border for dinner.

By sea the position is central. Monaco is fifteen minutes, Nice and Cannes an easy morning, Saint-Tropez a day, and the Italian Riviera runs east towards Portofino and the Cinque Terre. Corsica is an overnight passage and Sardinia follows from there. The waters immediately offshore lie inside the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean marine mammals, and the Capo Mortola marine protected area is on the doorstep, so there are rules about speed and approach that crews should know.

Season, timing and the honest downside

The season here is the Riviera season, running from Easter to October with the peak in July and August and the two Monaco weekends, the Grand Prix in late May and the Yacht Show in late September, dominating everything. Winter is quiet and the marina is a sensible place to leave a boat with the yard on site. Spring is when leaseholders return and the basin fills.

The downsides are plain enough. Ventimiglia is not glamorous and never will be, the marina is new and still lacks the settled feel of an old harbour, and the shopping and hotel offer is thin compared with anywhere between Nice and Portofino. The yard ceiling of 45 metres limits what can be done on site for a larger yacht. An owner buying here is buying proximity to Monaco and a long lease, and he is not buying Monaco.

Who it is for: The owner who wants Monaco access and a berth he can actually own, and who is unsentimental about which side of the border his yacht sleeps on.