Marina di Porto Cervo (Sardinia)

• Location: Porto Cervo, Costa Smeralda, north-east Sardinia, Italy
• Owner: Smeralda Holding, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority since 2012
• Operator: IGY Marinas, management agreement renewed 21 February 2025
• Berths: 700 total, of which 100 are sized for megayachts
• Max LOA: 160m, max draught 8m, no beam restriction
• Two harbours: New Marina open year-round, Old Port open only 1 June to 30 September
• Shore power: 16, 32, 63, 125 and 250 amp supplies
• On site: Cantiere Porto Cervo, a full-service yard in the same ownership
• Cost, 2026 charter-market guidance: about EUR 4,000 to EUR 9,000 a night in August for a 30 to 40m yacht
• Availability: first fortnight of August described as effectively sold out by mid-May
• Airport: Olbia Costa Smeralda about 31km, roughly 35 to 40 minutes by road
• Fixed dates 2026: Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta 26-30 May, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 6-12 September, Rolex Swan Cup 13-19 September

The approach and the inlet

The marina lies inside a narrow granite inlet on the Costa Smeralda, roughly 41 degrees 08 minutes north, 9 degrees 31 minutes east. The approach is straightforward in daylight and the inlet is genuinely well sheltered, which is the reason the Aga Khan's consortium picked this bay in the first place. Depths in the inlet run from about seven metres down to under two at the head, so the deep water is at the outer end where the marina puts the largest yachts. The port monitors VHF 16, 11 and 9 and runs a 24 hour watch at the New Marina.

The wind that governs the coast is the mistral out of the north-west, and it can blow hard enough to shut down tender work and make the outside passages unpleasant for days. Inside the inlet the effect is muted. Easterlies are the direction that troubles the anchorage off the entrance, and they are rare here. Cala Granu, a few minutes round the corner, is the standard bolthole when the mistral is up, with a shallow sandy bottom that holds well.

Two harbours and what they take

The marina runs as two harbours. The New Marina is open year-round with 24 hour VHF cover. The Old Port opens 1 June and closes 30 September, which is the single most useful thing an owner can know about capacity here, because roughly a third of the water disappears from the offer outside those four months. Total berthing is quoted at 700, of which 100 are sized for megayachts.

The published envelope is 160 metres maximum length, eight metres maximum draught and no beam restriction, on floating docks with full service alongside. Some secondary listings quote lower figures of around 100 metres and six metres, which reflect particular pontoons and not the marina's outer capability. In practice the biggest yachts lie at the deep end on the New Marina quays and everything else is fitted around them. Berthing is alongside or stern-to depending on the position, with berthing assistance provided.

Ten weeks at full pitch and then the Old Port closes on the last day of September.

The berthing reality in August

The honest answer for the first fortnight of August is that Porto Cervo is closed. Charter-market guidance published for 2026 describes the inventory for those two weeks as functionally claimed by around 1 May and effectively gone by mid-May, and advises anyone enquiring inside six weeks to plan on an anchorage. That is not a marketing line. It is how the harbour works.

The fallback is well established and perfectly comfortable. Yachts lie at Cala Granu or off Porto Cervo Sud and run guests in by tender, which is what a large part of the fleet does anyway because the anchorages here are excellent. Pevero bay next door is sheltered from the west and holds well on sand and rock, though the southern side is now a buoy field and there is no public tender landing in Cala Romantica. Outside the peak, from June and again from September, space at the marina is obtainable at reasonable notice.

Who owns it, and how a berth is obtained

The marina, the shipyard, the Pevero golf club and the four Costa Smeralda hotels all belong to Smeralda Holding, an Italian company that has been an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority since 2012. IGY Marinas runs the marina and the yard under a management agreement, renewed on 21 February 2025. So an owner deals with IGY at the quay and with a single landlord for almost everything ashore.

Transient and seasonal berths are booked direct with the marina. Longer tenure exists in the form of concession leases that are traded privately through berth brokers, and these carry an expiry date that an owner must check before he pays for one, since a listed concession can be close to its end. Annual arrangements at the New Marina suit yachts that use Sardinia as a summer base. The best positions are held by returning owners and rarely surface.

What it costs

Pricing is by length, by season and by position, with a steep multiplier for the peak. Charter-market guidance for 2026 put an August night at Marina di Porto Cervo for a 30 to 40 metre yacht at roughly EUR 4,000 to EUR 9,000, which is at the top of the Mediterranean range and comparable to Monaco outside race week. Treat that as indicative and dated. June and late September are a different order of money for the same berth.

The berth is the smaller part of the bill. Everything ashore on the Costa Smeralda is priced for the season, from provisioning to a table on the Piazzetta to a car, and a family week here will cost multiples of the same week in Palma or Yalikavak. Fuel is taken locally at Italian duty-paid rates unless the yacht is trading commercially. Owners who mind about the total tend to cruise the archipelago and come alongside for two nights.

Power, water, waste and the yard

Shore power is offered at 16, 32, 63, 125 and 250 amps, which covers a large yacht running its systems alongside without leaning on generators. Water, fuel, waste collection, laundry and provisioning are all handled at the berth, and the marina runs wifi and 24 hour security across the site. The Old Port and New Marina have separate offices and separate numbers, which catches out crews arriving in the shoulder season.

The real advantage over most destination marinas is the Cantiere Porto Cervo on site, a full-service yard in the same ownership that handles repair, maintenance, fitting-out and full refits. A fault that would otherwise mean a delivery passage to Genoa or La Spezia can often be dealt with in the bay. For scheduled heavy work most owners still go to the mainland yards, but the yard removes the risk of a broken week in August.

Security, privacy and how visible the yacht is

Security is 24 hours and the pontoons are controlled, which for a marina inside a private resort development means the yacht is behind more than one layer. The Costa Smeralda has been built and policed since the 1960s around the assumption that the people using it want to be left alone, and that culture holds.

Visibility is a different question in August. The marina quay becomes an evening promenade, the boats are photographed continuously, and the walk from the passerelle to the Piazzetta is short and public. It is nothing like Monaco during the show, but nor is it private. Owners who want to disappear use the anchorages around the Maddalena archipelago and come in only when they want to be ashore.

Ashore, the airport and a family week

Olbia Costa Smeralda airport is about 31 kilometres away, roughly 35 to 40 minutes by road, with summer connections across Europe and jet handling on site. That is the shortest airport run of any marquee Mediterranean marina, which matters when guests rotate weekly. The village behind the marina is small and entirely purpose-built, with the Piazzetta at its centre, boutiques, and the four resort hotels at Cala di Volpe, Romazzino, Pitrizza and Cervo within a few minutes' drive.

For a week with a family the strength is the water. The beaches of the Costa Smeralda are among the best in the Mediterranean, the Maddalena archipelago is an hour away by tender or a short cruise by yacht, and the Pevero golf course sits behind the village. What Porto Cervo does not have is a town with any life of its own. There is no old quarter, no market and little to walk around, so families who want culture take the yacht to Corsica or the Italian mainland.

The calendar, and the honest downside

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda gives the year its fixed points. For 2026 that means the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta on 26 to 30 May, the Rolex TP52 World Championship on 15 to 20 June, the Palermo to Porto Cervo to Monte Carlo race on 18 to 23 August, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup on 6 to 12 September and the Rolex Swan Cup on 13 to 19 September. Note that the superyacht regatta lost its long-standing Loro Piana title and now runs under Giorgio Armani.

The downside is the shape of the year. Porto Cervo is intense for about ten weeks and closed for the rest, the Old Port shuts entirely from October to May, and much of the village goes with it. Prices in the peak are the highest in the Mediterranean and there is no competitive alternative ashore because one holding company owns the hotels, the golf, the yard and the marina. A yacht based here full-time spends eight months in a resort that is not open.

Who it is for: An owner whose summer is built around six weeks in Sardinia and who bases the yacht somewhere else for the other ten months.