A Boater's Guide to Marinas on the Jersey Shore

The Jersey Shore packs an entire boating culture into one coastline: Raritan Bay striper grounds in the north, the Manasquan River's charter fleet, the long protected run of Barnegat Bay behind the barrier islands, and Cape May at the southern tip, a sportfishing port that faces the offshore grounds. The marinas follow the same geography. Here are six from the Waypoint directory, north to south. Every fact comes from the business's audited listing or its own website.

The marinas, north to south

Brown's Point Marina in Keyport sits on Raritan Bay with seasonal and transient slips, rack launching, a fuel dock, winter and summer storage, and an on site service department, with facilities renovated through 2021. It is also home base for an authorized Tohatsu outboard service center.

On the Manasquan River in Brielle, Hoffman's Marina pairs a fuel dock and transient slips with travelift and forklift service and a service department whose technicians are certified on Yamaha, Suzuki, Mercury, and Caterpillar, covering everything from outboard maintenance to bottom painting and spring commissioning.

Behind Barnegat Bay in Waretown, Forked River Diesel & Generator works out of Holiday Harbor Marina as a factory authorized Cummins and Westerbeke diesel and generator shop, serving boaters dockside and on the water since 1999. For the bay's large fleet of diesel cruisers and sportfish boats, this is the specialist trade.

Cape May Harbor concentrates three of the state's notable operations. Utsch's Marina at Schellenger's Landing has been family owned for about 75 years, with seasonal and overnight dockage, gas and diesel, factory trained mechanics, winter storage, a ship's store, and a tackle shop at the east end of the Cape May Canal.

South Jersey Marina offers 75 floating slips, transient dockage, a ship's store, fishing tackle, and a large charter and party boat fleet, with repair work handled through its sister yard.

That sister yard is Canyon Club Resort Marina, a full service facility with two travel lifts rated to 75 tons, a service center covering gas and diesel repairs, repowers, fiberglass, paint, carpentry, and electronics, plus in-slip fueling, pump-out, and transient dockage for boats to 125 feet.

Reading the Shore

Two facts of Jersey boating shape marina choices. First, the inlets: Manasquan, Barnegat, Absecon, and Cape May are the doors to the ocean, and keeping the boat near the inlet you fish saves hours each season. Barnegat Inlet in particular demands local knowledge, which makes a nearby service yard worth even more. Second, the season is short and sharp. Boats splash in April and May and come out by November, so winterization, shrink wrap, and storage are not afterthoughts here, they are half the relationship with your marina.

There is also the inside route. The New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway runs behind the barrier islands from Manasquan to Cape May, which means smaller boats can travel most of the Shore without going outside, and traveling cruisers funnel through the same handful of harbors every spring and fall. If you keep a boat along that route, transient traffic is part of marina life, and the fuel docks and service departments on this list see everything from bay skiffs to canyon boats in a single week.

Find your slip

See every verified listing on the Jersey Shore storage and marina page, where Waypoint checks each business against its own website before listing. And when you need a specific job done, a diesel survey, a repower quote, a winter rack, post it on In Search Of and matching Jersey Shore pros get the request by email with one tap to take the job.