Grand Harbour and Manoel Island

Where is the most centrally located safe haven in the Mediterranean, offering first class marina facilities? You don’t need a Phd in Geographical Information Systems to work out that Malta comfortably ticks this particular box, but how many of you have bothered to stop over at this beautiful island?

Situated at the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, it is an ideal location for people cruising the ancient trade routes. The island offers owners, guests and crew a great opportunity for arrival and departure for charter or stop over. Malta also provides a high quality of life at affordable costs for crew and their families; an important point to consider if the island is chosen as a permanent base for a yacht. It is also ideally located for superyachts and megayachts as a destination or home-port. It is close enough for cruising to Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, Côte d’Azur; Croatia is less than two days sailing away, with the furthest point of the Med not exceeding a distance of 1,000 nautical miles.

Here captains of larger yachts will find two main options for berthage, repair, dry dock and wintering facilities; Grand Harbour or Manoel Island and there is much talk of new developments at both locations in the ‘near future’. However, things appear to be moving forward somewhat slower than the pace of the proverbial snail and there are various reasons and opinions offered for the delays, which I am not going to go into.

Grand Harbour

Whoever named Grand Harbour was the master of understatement – it is impressively vast and is one of the largest deep water natural harbours in the world, offering an easily navigable entrance, negotiable in most weather conditions, providing excellent shelter for the largest yachts. It has been a thriving maritime centre since the arrival of the Knights of St John in 1530, and the farther you venture into the harbour, the more it becomes ‘delightfully shabby’, providing glimpses of maritime yesteryear. However you will need to appreciate that this is very much a working harbour as well as a fascinating, historic and beautiful destination for yachts of all sizes. The backdrop offers some of the most imposing and inspiring architecture you will find at a superyacht destination anywhere in the Mediterranean. At night, the illuminated ramparts of Valetta are worth the visit alone, the view is equally impressive from the Manoel Island side of Valetta.

The Grand Harbour Marina is home to one of the Mediterranean’s finest marinas, with all the facilities you would expect from a company with the maritime heritage of Camper & Nicholson and some say it matches the best that the Cote d’Azur has to offer. It is surrounded by the Baroque architecture, the defensive walls of Valletta and the Three Cities, located on the Vittoriosa Waterfront. Over the last two years the urban area behind the harbour has undergone important restoration and repair work, and there are also shops, offices, agencies providing all sorts of services. However, it has some way to go yet, before it can claim to compete with the up-market chique of Juans-les-Pins.

The marina can accept 214 boats up to 25 meters, plus 33 berths for superyacht moorings up to 100 meters in length, all equipped with power utilities and water, complimented by full and efficient quayside services. During design and construction, special attention was paid to safety and each pontoon has its own modern fire fighting system, capable of tackling any type of emergency. Most berths provide telephone and web connections as well as a centralized TV system. The area accommodating the boats is covered by a 24 hour CCTV surveillance system.

Grand Harbour provides some of the best superyacht repair facilities in the Med, comprising of two dedicated dry docks; one of which is installed with a high retractable cover.

Marsamxetto Harbour

The harbour, situated on the other side of the Valetta Peninsular is home to Manoel Island which appears to have become increasingly popular as a home port or wintering facility for some fine motor yachts. A recent trip to ‘the island’ provided me with a classic snap shot of the diverse range of super and mega yachts visiting the island, the largest being the 95 meter Indian Empress, owned by Indian business baron Vijay Mallya.

Manoel Island Marina is situated to the south of Manoel Island and about half a nautical mile from the main entrance to Marsamxetto Creek. There is also a large yacht marina at Msida, but I suggest this is for smaller yachts, below 24 meters and it is usually very crowded and used mainly by ‘locals’.

Malta's geographical position places it at the top of the list of ideal Mediterranean bases for chartering activities, stop overs or off-season base, thanks to the presence of the Grand Harbour Marina and Manoel Island. Malta is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and ‘in time’ with Central European Time (CET) and the local currency is the Euro.

Weblinks

www.boatcarelimited.com

www.ghm.com.mt

www.manoelislandmarina.com

www.melitamarinegroup.net

www.yachtyard-malta.com