Houston Area Marinas

[Irwin54]

Hello All,
I was a year round liveaboard in New England for 11 years. First on an OI41 and then the Irwin 54. Loved it! Because of work and family issues (3 kids under 4 at the time) we moved ashore about a year and a half ago. We managed to keep the boat. We will move back as soon as possible.
Looks like work will be relocating us to Houston. Can anyone recommend marinas within a reasonable drive of Houston? Mast height is 64 feet, depth is 6 feet.
Thanks in Advance

[PBzeer]

Quite a few on Clear Lake which is just off Galveston Bay. Coming in from the Bay is Kemah Boardwalk, Portfino, Legend Point, Waterford Harbor, Watergate, Marina del Sol, and South Shore. There's a few more, but I don't know their names. Clear Lake is somewhat shallow, and in the winter (I'm told) the Norther's empty out the Lake pretty well.

Good luck in your search.

[Irwin54]

Wow, that sounds like quite a selection.
When you say shallow, do you have a sense for what that means? Less than 10' less than 5? Or just a loss of x feet from normal LW?
Do you know any of them well enough to recommend?

[jimbelinda]

All of the marinas close to Houston are on Clear Lake, which is off Galveston Bay, and is about 30 miles southeast of downtown Houston. With a 6 ft draft you'll probably want to be close to Galveston Bay, because Clear Lake gets pretty shallow the farther away from the bay you get.

If you want floating piers, your best choices are Kemah marina, which is the closest to the bay but is in the middle of the main restaurant area, so can be pretty congested & noisy, Portofino, Lakewood Yacht club ($$$), and Waterford Harbor. Waterford Harbor is the farthest of the four, so is considered to be safer in the case of hurricanes or tropical storms, but the channel leading into it from Clear Lake has a tendency of shoaling up to 4-5 ft especially in the winter months.

Most of the time you'll be in waters less than 12 ft deep, even in Galveson Bay, except for the Houston ship channel.

Jim Wolfe

Originally Posted by Irwin54

Hello All,
I was a year round liveaboard in New England for 11 years. First on an OI41 and then the Irwin 54. Loved it! Because of work and family issues (3 kids under 4 at the time) we moved ashore about a year and a half ago. We managed to keep the boat. We will move back as soon as possible.
Looks like work will be relocating us to Houston. Can anyone recommend marinas within a reasonable drive of Houston? Mast height is 64 feet, depth is 6 feet.
Thanks in Advance