Question: Sailboat mooring in Gustavia

Does anyone have any information on mooring a sailboat in Gustavia? Terms? Policies? Rates? Etc? I'm considering moving my boat from Miami to SBH for a year but need more info. Thanks/Merci!

The Capitainerie/Port Office would be a good place to start. They’re all bilingual. http://www.portdegustavia.fr/port-plaisance-gustavia

Have a thought about your insurance and hurricane season too.

Kevin is correct about hurricane season. Most boats are taken out of the water or moved to a safe harbor (often in the Grenadines) or dry docked on another island during hurricane season. In St Kitts they put sailboats in large holes in the ground with the deck flat to the surface and the mast well secured.. they put old tires in the hole around the boat, seems to be a good system, although some people prefer a dry dock system where they can work on their boat in the off season. St Martin used to do a lot of that but after some of the recent hurricanes, where hundreds of boats were destroyed on land and in the lagoon, I'd think twice about that. The director of the port in SBH is Ernest Brin, and as Kevin notes, speaks quite good English. To my knowledge there are no year-round moorings currently available in the inner harbor... but it can't hurt to ask, might depend on what kind of boat you are thinking of bringing...

We are neophytes to the island but after seeing the destruction from the last several hurricanes we agree with the advice you have received above,

I would be interested in seeing how the boats are put into holes in the ground. Seems like a good idea..... until the hole fills with water and the boat pops out. I'm sure they have that covered though.

I am reminded of a old project my bossed worked on years ago.... a 500 ton concrete tank. During construction they had a heavy storm. Water filled the excavation, the tank floated and moved out of position. The tanked ended up being demolished and reconstructed.

steelpe said:

I would be interested in seeing how the boats are put into holes in the ground...

Click to expand...

Keel Pit is what came to mind. Here is a bit from a marina in Fiji that uses this method to reduce windage etc..

I have seen this done in the Bahamas but could not find an example from there and the Fiji site provides a good description and pictures in addition to the one from this sailing blog used below. I think I would take those masts down though...

Thanks for sharing. Very creative. One wonders with a direct hit as occurred with Irma in SBH, would these survive?

Looking at the picture of the harbor, knowing the airport, and the amount of housing and possible building on the island, there is hope that St Barts can avoid being overbuilt.

Those pictures are not a deep as I had envisioned. I don't think there is any risk of the boats floating out of the holes. Pretty interesting concept. Given the conditions of the holes (grassed over) I suspect the method is successful. Depending on the geological conditions a hole could be dug relatively quickly with proper equipment.