Visiting a marina, whether you’re on holiday in the USA, Europe or in the Middle East, can be a very exhilarating and fun experience, especially if you haven’t visited a marina before, or don’t go sailing regularly. However, like any attraction or place of interest, a marina will have certain rules and guidelines that visitors must abide by, and while some of these will concern health and safety, a great number of these guidelines will have been put in place to ensure that everyone on the marina has the best possible experience whilst they’re there.

To do this, marinas around the world, including some of the most popular marinas, such as those in the USA and Oman, have put several guidelines in place to ensure that everybody will maintain a conscientious, polite, and respectful attitude towards every person who uses the marina and its services.

As space in a marina can be limited, all visitors must work to be good ‘neighbors’ whilst their boat is moored in a marina, and because your actions will affect everyone from your ship-mates to the marina staff, certain guidelines must be acknowledged and followed. These guidelines are easy to remember and even easier to understand, so take the time to learn them before you arrive at the marina of your choice.

These Guides Include:

• Tying your boat so that the anchor and the bow pulpit don’t extend over the bull rail, and therefore into the path of people walking around the boat.
• Always flemish your mooring lines, as this will be another tripping hazard for people on the dock. So coil up any excess mooring line neatly, and put it away in a safe place.
• Make sure that you shut down your boat’s electronics completely before disembarking from your vessel. A marina is a place for everyone, and any lights or music players that are left on will irritate the other visitors.
• Remember to keep all clutter on your boat to a minimum, especially any clutter in and around your life raft, because you may need to access your lifeboat quickly in an emergency, and clutter and other excess gear will only slow you down.
• When waiting for passengers, or when trying to load your boat, keep away from the launch ramp and fuel dock floats – use the special loading zones to ensure that you don’t get in anyone’s way.
• Unnecessarily lingering in either of these places is considered very rude, and the last thing you want to do in a marina is upset your neighbors.

As previously mentioned, most marinas around the world will have their rules and guidelines visible, so take the time to read and learn them, because they could not only stop you from making any mistakes, they could also make you very popular with your marina neighbors and the marina staff. If you can’t see any regulations, or they aren’t immediately visible to you, then always ask, and see if there’s anything in particular that you need to do at your chosen marina.