BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
Median Marina Capacity: 135 Berths — and Why It Changes Your Holiday
Half of the marinas with a known capacity have fewer than 135 berths. What that median says about the scarcity of visitor berths in summer, and how to plan around it.
We tend to picture "a marina" as a thousand-berth complex with a designer harbour office. Statistical reality is more modest: among the marinas in our directory with a recorded capacity, the median stands at 135 berths. Half of all marinas are smaller than that.
The figures, and their exact scope
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Marinas recorded (8 countries) | 3,349 |
| … of which capacity recorded in OSM | 293 |
| Median capacity (of those 293) | 135 berths |
| Entry threshold of the top 15 | 800 berths |
| Largest capacity (Port des Minimes) | 5,100 berths |
Statistical honesty first: this median covers the 293 marinas out of 3,349 whose capacity OpenStreetMap contributors have recorded. Since large marinas are documented more often than small municipal harbours, the true median of the full fleet is probably even lower than 135.
What does 135 berths actually look like?
A human-scale harbour: two or three pontoons, a slipway, a fuel dock if you are lucky, a handful of visitor berths — often fewer than ten. And that is the decisive nuance: a marina's capacity is not its availability. A 135-berth harbour with 95% of berths held year-round by locals offers only a few transient spots, allocated on arrival, over the VHF, or increasingly through booking apps. The top 15 by capacity starts at 800 berths precisely because those giants are the exception: nearly six times the median capacity just to enter the ranking.
What it changes for your boating holiday
In summer, the visitor berth is the scarce resource. Research on nautical tourism ports has documented it for a long time: built capacity lags behind demand, and the berth shortage is especially acute on islands, where expansion options are limited (Kovačić, Bošković & Favro, Possibilities and limitations of spatial technical and technological development of a port of nautical tourism, Naše More, 2006, see the study on Google Scholar). Practical consequences, as skipper's advice (to be distinguished from our data):
- Call the harbour office before setting off, especially for a weekend stopover in a below-median harbour: at 135 berths, a few crews are enough to fill everything.
- Arrive early in high season — mid-afternoon, not at aperitif time — or book ahead where the harbour allows it.
- Keep a plan B at anchor: our guide to anchoring etiquette covers how to do it properly.
Why the median, not the mean
A detail that is anything but: we publish the median, not the mean. With giants like Les Minimes (5,100 berths) in the sample, an average would be pulled far above what a boater actually encounters: a handful of enormous marinas is enough to send it soaring. The median says exactly this: pick a marina at random among those with a known capacity, and one time out of two it will have fewer than 135 berths. It is the honest indicator for picturing "the typical harbour" — and the same logic we apply to our rental price readings, published as medians for the same reasons.
Small harbours, great stopovers
The low median is not bad news. Hundred-berth harbours are often the finest stopovers: less concrete, a village on the quay, a harbour master who knows the waters. Our directory helps spot those stopovers around each destination — for instance near La Rochelle, where small Charentais harbours orbit the giant of Les Minimes. And to choose the boat before the stopover, Boat-Comparator compares each destination's rental operators live.
Source: data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracted July 2026 — capacity recorded for 293 of 3,349 marinas. Stopover advice comes from sailing experience, not from the data.
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