Best Cape May Marina
 

Hello fellow mariners, got any recommendations for Cape May marinas?

Utsch's. Great location and staff, best "welcome bag" on the east coast. We're not much for marinas, but considered them a "destination". Always stayed for a few days to enjoy the town and beach.

We’ve skipped Utsch’s because we’ve heard fairways are very tight and it’s a bit shoaly there.

We stay at Canyon Club because it’s easy in/out, good dockhands, nice pool, shuttle, fuel at the slip. At LLW our 5.5’ draft sometimes stirs up the bottom but usually not a problem. It’s all sportfish with sail and other power boats as transients. The walk over to Lucky Bones isn’t that far but, of course the walk downtown is longer.

We heard good things about South Jersey Marina other than current ripping through.

Other than the above two, you have to head up the ICW into the Wildwoods....at least in the past.....most of the time the other marinas in Cape May really either dont cater to transients or are too shallow.

Then between Utsch's or Canyon Club....its a toss up unless you have strong opinions about what you like in a marina.

Let me take you from "heard" to a bit of direct experience. We had no issues getting into or around Utsch's in our 61' LOA, 18'2" beam, 5 foot draft Hatteras 56MY. They are very helpful on the radio guiding you in. Luck Bones is across the street, and the Lobster House, along with it's excellent seafood market, across the parking lot. Plus they are just so dang friendly.

There is a really nice marina over in Wildwood that some friends used to stay at, for the life of me I can't recall the name; we'd zip over there in the Whaler. However we love Cape May proper (as well as Utsch's) and always stayed a few extra days.

The first marina north on the ICW.... but not very big is 2 Mile....maybe under a different name. Its just past the bridge to the East.

A few miles further north is Schooner Island, much larger and near more stores, restaurants, etc than 2 mile.

Utschs can be tight for vessels over 50 feet depending on which slip or meeting a large vessel in the fairway....but not unreasonable with due care. Boat handling skills as well as propulsion plus thrusters factor in too.

We stayed at Utschs a few years ago. Very friendly and helpful. We had no difficulty getting in or out.

Canyon club has the infinity pool. Utshes has the location on the other side of the bridge. My family prefers Canyon club for the pool. We take the marina shuttle, dinghy or uber to get around.


Really depends if you want the pool or not.

We stayed at South Jersey a couple years ago. Very nice marina, helpful folks, etc... and it was about the easiest walk for us to/from the downtown area.

Yes, current. Decent fairways, though, made for some BIG boats. It took me a bit to get turned stern-to the assigned 4-way slip, but some of that was operator headspace. And I could have bothered to time our arrival a bit better, if I'd thought about it in advance.

One thing we noticed is that many of the slips have some vertical rebar segments on the outer piles, and if you tie to the rebar (instead of to the pile) it's sort of a a built-in tide solution. Think TimeMinders. The locals usually tied to a steel ring that could slide up and down the rebar. We didn't get that squared away on our initial approach, but sorted it out afterwards... after getting relaxed and sorted out...

-Chris

Canyon Club
South Jersey
Utches
All take transients
If you are coming in July or August make sure you call ahead. The first two host a few huge tournaments.

Thanks Chris on the docking note.



I forgot to mention that Canyon club has floating docks and only a little current.

Forgot about South Jersey....nice but pricey or often full once the season starts.

SJ has a huge along-side floating dock for transients. I have seen 100+ ft yachts in there often.

True, but a couple big boys on a busy weekend with lots of reservations.....who knows....