What does it cost to dock a 50 foot boat in Broward County?
Plan on roughly $2,000 to $3,500 a month for a wet slip, higher on the beach side, lower inland on the New River. Almost no Broward marina publishes a rate anymore. You get a number by calling, and it moves with the season, the term, and whether they have room.
I get this question two or three times a month, almost always from someone who has already signed. The boat is bought. The survey is done. Nobody worked out where it sleeps. Then they start calling marinas and find out the good ones are full and the cheap ones are 4 feet deep.
Work this out before you close. It changes which boat you should buy.
How is dockage actually quoted?
Two ways, and mixing them up will cost you thousands.
Most Broward marinas quote per foot per day. Marina Bay Yachting Center on the New River is one of the few that still posts a public rate card, and it does it this way. For a boat in the 45 to 65 foot band their annual rate, meaning a commitment of nine months or more, is $2.25 per foot per day. On a 50 footer that is $112.50 a day, about $3,400 a month, about $41,000 a year. Their short term rate for one to four months is $2.55, and transient under 30 days is $3.25. That rate page was last updated in June 2023, so treat it as the shape of the pricing and not a quote.
Other marinas quote per foot per month. The Miami Herald reported in July 2026 that public marinas in Miami-Dade run $23 to $40 per foot per month, with high end superyacht facilities at $60 to $100. That is Miami-Dade, not Broward, but Broward sits in the same market and the beach side numbers are not far off it.
Three things to nail down on the call:
- Do they charge on your LOA or on the slip? Bahia Mar Yachting Center bills on vessel length or slip length, whichever is greater. If the only opening is a 60 foot slip, you pay for 60 feet. Catamarans there get charged for two slips.
- What is the minimum? Marina Bay’s card starts at 40 feet. Sands Harbor in Pompano applies a 30 foot minimum charge. Under the minimum, your length does not matter.
- Is electric included? Usually not. Marina Bay meters shore power at $0.016 per kW, or charges $0.10 per foot for 30 amp and $0.35 per foot for 50 amp. Sands Harbor folds electric and water into a $25 per night facility fee. Water and basic wifi are usually free. Power is not.
The New River and Marina Mile: cheapest real dockage in the county
If you want a full service marina and you care about the number, look inland first. The New River corridor is where the yards are, which means it is also where the dockage is, and it prices below the beach.
The trade is the run to the ocean. From Marina Bay you are working your way east down the river past bridges before you ever see the Intracoastal. On the South Fork the I-95 crossing is a fixed 55 foot bridge, and downtown you have the FEC railroad bridge plus Davie Boulevard, Seventh Avenue, Andrews and Third Avenue, all bascules. A 50 foot express or flybridge clears the openers easily. That is not the problem. The problem is time. Budget 45 minutes to an hour to get out, and understand you will do it every single trip.
For a boat you run most weekends, that gets old. For a boat you run once or twice a month, it is the smartest money in Broward.
Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the city docks
The City of Fort Lauderdale runs municipal docking on the New River out of 450 SW 7th Ave, including Cooley’s Landing and the downtown New River docks. The city lists 100 slips with full utilities on the downtown side. It is walkable to Las Olas and it is city run, which usually means it prices below private.
The city references a Marine Facilities Dockage Rate Card but does not post current numbers where I could find them. Call (954) 828-4626.
Fort Lauderdale beach side: Bahia Mar, Las Olas, 17th Street
This is the most expensive dockage in Broward and the fastest water access. Bahia Mar has around 250 slips and handles boats to 300 feet. Las Olas Marina sits just north of it. Lauderdale Marina near 15th Street has side canal slips built for 70 to 100 foot boats on a first come basis. None of them post rates. All three want a phone call.
What you are buying here is Port Everglades. It is a commercial deep water inlet, it is open in almost any condition, and from a slip near 17th Street you are outside in minutes.
What you are paying for besides the slip is the bridge. As of February 19, 2026 the Coast Guard made the SE 17th Street bridge schedule permanent. It opens on the hour and half hour, except from 6:50 to 9:10 in the morning and 3:50 to 6:10 in the afternoon Monday through Friday, when it opens once an hour at the top of the hour. If your boat needs that bridge and you fish before work, that rule is now part of your life. Pick a slip on the correct side of it.
Dania Beach
Two very different options a mile apart.
Harbour Towne Marina on the Dania Cut-off Canal takes wet slips up to 200 feet and dry storage up to 50 feet, with a travel lift and service on site. Its selling point is that there are no bridges between it and the Port Everglades inlet. That is a real advantage over anything on the New River, at a location that still is not beachfront pricing.
Dania Beach Marina, the municipal one, is a different animal. Waterway Guide lists approach and dockside depth at 4.0 feet, with 30 and 50 amp service. A 50 foot boat drawing four and a half feet does not belong there regardless of price. Check your draft against the depth before you check the rate. This is the single most common mistake I see people make when they go shopping on price alone.
Hollywood
Hollywood has no inlet of its own. Everything based there runs north to Port Everglades or south toward Baker’s Haulover, and you deal with the Sheridan Street and Hollywood Boulevard bridges depending on where you sit. For a 50 footer this is workable but it is a compromise position, and the marina options thin out fast compared with Fort Lauderdale and Dania.
Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point and Hillsboro
North Broward is the value play if you fish.
Sands Harbor in Pompano takes boats to 120 feet with a 30 foot beam and 12 foot draft. It charges a $25 per night facility fee that covers electric, water and the resort amenities, on top of dockage. Per foot rates come by phone.
Hidden Harbour Marina in Pompano tops out at 43 feet LOA, so a 50 is out.
Port 32 Lighthouse Point takes wet slips to 80 feet LOA and 24 feet of beam, with 30 and 50 amp at each slip, and sits minutes from the Hillsboro Inlet.
Hillsboro is the whole argument for keeping a boat up here. It is a short run from Lighthouse Point to blue water and you skip the Port Everglades ship traffic entirely. It is also a smaller inlet than Port Everglades and it demands more local knowledge on the way in and out.
Can you rent a private dock behind someone’s house?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Expect to pay less than a marina for the same length, sometimes considerably less. You get no fuel, no pumpout, no security gate, no service, and a month to month arrangement that can end when the house sells.
Before you hand anyone a deposit, check three things. Depth at low tide, not at the moment you looked at it. Whether the city and the HOA actually allow the rental, because Fort Lauderdale regulates docks and mooring structures under its land development code and neighborhoods vary. And whether the dock and pilings can take a 50 foot boat in a blow, which is a question for a professional who inspects structures, not for me and not for the homeowner.
I am a broker. I am not a surveyor and I am not a marine contractor. When the answer matters, pay the person whose job it is.
Is dry stack an option for a 50 footer?
Mostly no. Most Broward racks stop in the low 40s. F3 Marina in Fort Lauderdale takes boats up to 43 feet LOA, 13 feet of beam, 17 feet of height and 30,000 pounds wet. Hidden Harbour in Pompano stops at 43 feet.
Two facilities go higher. Harbour Towne in Dania Beach stores up to 50 feet, and Port 32 Fort Lauderdale on the New River lists dry slips for boats up to 55 feet with a building rated to 175 mph wind loads. If your 50 footer is an outboard center console with a modest tower, dry storage is worth pricing. If it has a flybridge, inboards and running gear, you are in a wet slip and that is that.
What I tell buyers before they close
Call marinas while the boat is still under contract, not after. Ask for the annual rate and the transient rate, because the gap between them is usually 30 to 40 percent and it tells you how badly you want a long term commitment. Ask whether they bill on your LOA or the slip. Ask how power is billed. Ask about liveaboard rules if that is on the table, because policies and fees vary by marina and several will simply say no. And ask what the depth is at your slip at mean low water.
Where the boat lives changes what the boat is worth to you. A 50 foot sportfish on the New River with an hour of bridges between it and the inlet gets used four times a year and sells in eighteen months. The same boat in Lighthouse Point gets used forty times a year. Same hull. Different life.
If you are working out which boat fits which dock, or you are about to buy and you have not solved this yet, call me. That conversation takes ten minutes and it has saved people from buying the wrong boat more than once.
Frank Christopher, Yacht Broker, Prestige Marine.