Canadians love their lakes. With over 50% of the world’s natural lakes residing in Canada, they have every reason to. Without its lakes, Canada would actually be smaller in area than the USA!
This article looks at 8 of Canada’s largest marinas, situated on 6 different lakes.
8. Kelowna Yacht Club
With around 1000 slips advertised for rent on their website, Kelowna Yacht Club sits on approximately 24 acres, making it one of the most compact large marinas in Canada. This marina offers an enormous and likely one of the nicest yacht clubs in British Columbia and has been around for over 70 years.
7. Krate’s Marina
Located in Keswick, Ontario, Krate’s Marina holds over 500 slips and encompasses 32 acres. Krate’s Marina is on the southern shore of Lake Simcoe, about an hour’s drive from the heart of Toronto via the ON-404 highway. They offer a parts and service department and also recently added a boat rental program to their marina.
6. Outer Harbour Marina
Located 10 minutes from the downtown core of Toronto and just minutes away from Billy Bishop Airport, Outer Harbour Marina is our most urban marina and thanks to the nearby airport, one of the most accessible. Outer Harbour Marina is on Lake Ontario and contains over 600 slips which cover about 33 acres. With prices starting at $104 per foot, a standard 30 foot boat can expect to pay over $3100 plus tax, per season.
5. Bridgeview Yachting Centre
Located across the border, just a couple thousand feet away from the USA, Sarnia is home to the Bridgeview Yachting Centre. This marina estimated they offer over 750 slips and sit on at least 35 acres. Some of Bridgeview’s unique amenities are an outdoor pool, dockside barbecues and air-conditioned washrooms. They are located on the south edge of Lake Huron.
4. Friday Harbour
Unlike the majority of our list, Friday Harbour on Lake Simcoe is a year-round $1.5 billion resort project offering everything from a golf course to multi-million dollar condos and a whopping 2000 slip marina, making it the largest capacity marina in Canada. Although 2000 slips is larger than any other marina on our list, CTV News claimed the marina itself only sits on 40 acres of the 600 acre resort. The amount of non-boater activities available makes Friday Harbour one of the best non-boater destinations on our list.
3. Bay Port Yachting Centre
Up in Georgian Bay, Bay Port Yachting Centre posts a capacity of over 700 slips. Over the phone their friendly staff reported a very modest 5 acres, but after using Google Maps satellite imaging, we saw they were over 45 acres, making them not only a top 3 contender, but probably the most modest marina on the list. Like Friday Harbour, Bay Port is also owned by a conglomerate — Parkbridge is Canada’s largest owner and operator of residential land lease communities and resorts.
2. Wye Heritage Marina
Coming in second place, Wye Heritage Marina claims to be the largest freshwater marina in Canada on their website, however didn’t measure up under our investigation. They claim to have 800 slips, which puts them below 2 marinas on our list in that category. Over the phone they said they sit on about 100 acres but after doing a survey on Google Maps satellite images, we estimate their size to be around 70 acres. Wye Heritage is also owned by Parkbridge and is located in Midland, Ontario on beautiful Georgian Bay.
1. MacDonald Turkey Point Marina
Topping off our list, MacDonald Turkey Point Marina offers approximately 750 seasonal slips on a massive 78 acre property located on the north shore of Lake Erie. Unlike the other marinas in the list, this giant also allows cottage owners to rent access to its waterways for those cottages that back onto the marina channels. If you factor in the cottage owners, the acreage climbs to approximately 110 acres, putting it above the other marinas on our list, in both scenarios. The marina offers a 12 nozzle fuel dock, boat maintenance, a restaurant, Sea-Doo rentals and a used boat dealership.
Featured photo credit: MacDonald Turkey Point Marina via macdonaldmarine.com
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Source: Life Hack
