# Marina Directory



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

What's the best directory for marina's. I am new to sailing,and I have not yet found a directory that lists marina, ect.


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## Sapperwhite (Oct 21, 2006)

http://marinas.com/ is ok, but you have to know what you are looking for.


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

Consider ActiveCaptain.com. Very comprehensive site.


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## mazzy (Mar 11, 2006)

If you're on the East Coast, check out www.atlanticcruisingclub.com


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## mazzy (Mar 11, 2006)

Hey xort, activecaptain is very good! i like that it lists anchorages as well.
Mike


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## labatt (Jul 31, 2006)

I would also recommend activecaptain.com. I like the way that individuals can add to the site. I've added a hundred or so items myself, and constantly see new things spring up. On the other hand, if you're looking for pictures of marinas, marinas.com is the way to go.


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## Sapperwhite (Oct 21, 2006)

I'm on activecaptain, also as Sapperwhite.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

I don't care for activecaptain or how it works. Seems more a pain to use then a useful resource.


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

free
I don't understand how you can think that, seems pretty darn easy to me...splain for me?


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

When it comes to finding info - not many want to register to see it. Woodalls which is the RV bible for places - even their online system is free - no registration required...

Nothing like registering for something you do not know if or not it will be a piece of crap...


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

I am looking for a marina in the Chesapeake and I typed that name in and it brought me to some place in South Carolina. Wasn't even close. I don't like playing with the map either. I don't know the city or zip code of the marina's. All I want is a list.


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

Thanks for the explaination Free, I guess it isn't for everybody.


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

You know, I did some research on this...

Normally - finding places to go is the following:

1. the local sail rag.

2. Talking to other cruisers...

3. Doing the inet search

Considering there are more boats (sail or not) than rvs... seems a bit ridiculous that somehow free (or requiring no registration) resources for a 411 of open marinas is actually not plausible..

I suggest that sailnet create a new forum option for marinas for the forum...

(I'd do it myself but I like to draw pretty little pictures)...


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

xort said:


> Thanks for the explaination Free, I guess it isn't for everybody.


Your very welcome, and I still need a "cheap" marina .......


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

Freesail99 said:


> I am looking for a marina in the Chesapeake and I typed that name in and it brought me to some place in South Carolina. Wasn't even close. I don't like playing with the map either. I don't know the city or zip code of the marina's. All I want is a list.


You can search by location, marina name (or part thereof), ICW mile marker, or latitude/longitude.

If you enter a marina name, it shows a list of marinas that "hit" the string along with the state that they are located in. Then you select the marina and click "Go". If you enter a location name, it just goes to the location name if there is a match.

Perhaps in searching for your marina you didn't click the marina tab and searched by location?

Also, addressing artbyjody's concern about registration...

ActiveCaptain allows users to update the information in the databases. That is much different than Woodalls where you basically just look up data. We have to have some means of protecting the data or else it is no good for anyone. Robots and spambots attack our site every day. Registration helps protect against this.

This registration concern crops up from time to time. I'll never understand it. Isn't it what a Yahoo email account is for?

And by the way, when I looked up an RV site near me in Woodalls, it asked me for my user ID and password...


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Thanks for all the great info, the activecaptain was exactly what i was looking for. Thanks for the responce.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Unfortunately, Activecaptain's registration engine seems to not be working, as I registered over a day ago, and have yet to receive a confirmation e-mail... this is the second time I've tried to register with the service. I'll stick with Marinas.com... unless Activecaptain comes up with something that makes it a bit more compelling to put up with the screwed up user registration.


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

sailingdog said:


> Unfortunately, Activecaptain's registration engine seems to not be working...


Based on your name here, I can see where you registered yesterday. The email was sent out and was accepted. I'd bet it's waiting in your spam folder.

In any case, I manually enabled your account. It does happen a couple of times a week - pretty typical for this type of thing. Most people leave a comment that they didn't get the validation email and it gets fixed immediately.

ActiveCaptain is free. There isn't any advertising. We honest try and do the best job that we can.

I think that if you gave it a shot, you'd find a world of different from marinas.com. Frankly I love marinas.com - I've talked to the owner and are considering how we can compliment each other. But we have significantly more information, anchorages, local knowledge markers. We're about to release a mobile phone version that displays the markers over nautical charts on Palm's and Windows Mobile devices. Yesterday we just released the largest update ever - more than 3,000 "inlet" markers. They mark the typical ocean access along with thousands of harbors, coves and cruising destinations. Many/most of the markers have 1-5 pages of cruising guide text - we calculated it at 2,500 pages of text in just the new inlets (if you look at the News section, you'll see that the press release is dated tomorrow because the announcement goes out in the morning).

Come on sailingdog...give it an honest try. If you do, I'll loan you a mooring on the Penobscot Bay for a week that will hold your boat in close proximity to my home town.


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

JeffreySiegel said:


> ...
> 
> Also, addressing artbyjody's concern about registration...
> 
> ...


But with Woodals - I do not have to update the information nor do I have to register to view it..

The gudegraw if you will...


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Jeff-

The particular account I used for that registration isn't filtered for anything at the server, but at my laptop... and nothing has come in from the activecaptain.com domain. I'll take a look and see if my account works...


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

artbyjody said:


> But with Woodals - I do not have to update the information nor do I have to register to view it..
> 
> The gudegraw if you will...


I believe there is no requirement that you have to do any updating.

You registered with sailnet to post here.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

JeffreySiegel said:


> You can search by location, marina name (or part thereof), ICW mile marker, or latitude/longitude.
> 
> If you enter a marina name, it shows a list of marinas that "hit" the string along with the state that they are located in. Then you select the marina and click "Go". If you enter a location name, it just goes to the location name if there is a match.
> 
> ...


If I knew the names of the marinas I wouldn't need activecaptain or any other site. I wanted a list of marinas and around the chesapeake bay as I am in Southern New Jersey. I was also using the "marina tab".


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

Freesail99 said:


> If I knew the names of the marinas I wouldn't need activecaptain or any other site. I wanted a list of marinas and around the chesapeake bay as I am in Southern New Jersey. I was also using the "marina tab".


That's not really fair - now you're changing your complaint.

You can see all the marinas in an area by moving the map to that location. You can turn off all the anchorages and local knowledge markers if it's too cluttered. The marinas in view are displayed in the list on the left.

Why don't you tell me what you typed? If it just jumped to a new location when you entered "Find" then you weren't in the marinas tab. It just doesn't work that way.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

JeffreySiegel said:


> That's not really fair - now you're changing your complaint.
> 
> You can see all the marinas in an area by moving the map to that location. You can turn off all the anchorages and local knowledge markers if it's too cluttered. The marinas in view are displayed in the list on the left.
> 
> Why don't you tell me what you typed? If it just jumped to a new location when you entered "Find" then you weren't in the marinas tab. It just doesn't work that way.


Just to be fair, I just went back to your site. I could pull up no names of marina's. If I want information I don't want to be zooming in and out with maps and I was on the marina tab, and I did turn off the other information. I guess I don't want to work this hard to get a little information


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I must say activecaptain is a great site, I hope in the future you are planning the ability to add photos. Keep up the good work.


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

It's one of the things I've talked to marinas.com about. There's a lot of things going on right now but I hope to come back to that idea. We've experimented with videos too. Building the site in Flash allows for all types of multimedia coming from the databases.

Stay tuned!


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

I went to the AC site to take a look. If you want a list of every marina on the Chessy then AC isn't going to work. That would be one very long list. I don't think I would want a list that long. If you are zoomed out far enough, no marks will show.
I scaled into an area that included Annapolis out to the bridge and got a list of 51 marinas. That's a pretty big list to scroll through. Seems very nice to see exactly where the marinas are on the map and then pick and choose from there.
But there's more than one way to skin a horse of a different color.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Well,please don't change your format. I love seeing the map with everything marked on it.


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## xort (Aug 4, 2006)

endofdays said:


> Well,please don't change your format. I love seeing the map with everything marked on it.


When you zoom out far enough, the marks are gone. They come back when you zoom in. You can turn on/off the different categories of marks.


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

The "format" isn't going to change. I do plan to add the ability to filter the local knowledge (blue) markers. There are places where there are too many of them. There are times, especially on the mobile phone version where I can see someone saying, "only show the blue markers for TowBoat US and SeaTow" - or "only show bridges with heights < 45 feet".


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## artbyjody (Jan 4, 2008)

xort said:


> I believe there is no requirement that you have to do any updating.
> 
> You registered with sailnet to post here.


But I didn't register here to read everything... for 3 years I have read every post and article... but never had to register to get the info. Only when I finally decided I may or may not have relevant experiences to share (based on other points of view) did I register...

For something I would be looky loo on - not gonna register - too much effort for something I may or may not use again... Difference here versus mentioned site - here there is a broad range to be involved in....


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## labatt (Jul 31, 2006)

I use ActiveCaptain quite often. I like the map interface, and sometimes just spend an hour scrolling around looking at places to go. The speed of the site is good, and I have contributed a bunch of new items and reviews. It's definitely different than marinas.com.

For those of you who are concerned about giving up your email address, I would suggest the following: Go to www.godaddy.com. For under $10/year, register yourself a domain name. Set up godaddy.com to send e-mail to [email protected] to go to your real e-mail account. Then, every time you go to a website and have to give an e-mail address, use [email protected]. For example, for activecaptain, set your e-mail address to be [email protected]. That way, if you ever start getting spammed you can automatically junk mail sent to that one particular e-mail address and you'll know who is selling your name.


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## sailortjk1 (Dec 20, 2005)

Cruising Guides?

"Great Lakes Ports-o-Call" for those on the inland seas.
I don't think the original poster gave his location and if we are talking about sources other than internet seaching, than the cruising guide that I have mentioned is a very valuable tool. 
Each lake has its own book/guide with every harbor listed.
It includes lists of marina's, power hook ups, laundry, showers, min water levels, max length, resturants, shore side ammenities, and more.
We use ours all the time and it is always on board with us.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Or you could just get a free Google mail-gmail.com account. 


labatt said:


> I use ActiveCaptain quite often. I like the map interface, and sometimes just spend an hour scrolling around looking at places to go. The speed of the site is good, and I have contributed a bunch of new items and reviews. It's definitely different than marinas.com.
> 
> For those of you who are concerned about giving up your email address, I would suggest the following: Go to www.godaddy.com. For under $10/year, register yourself a domain name. Set up godaddy.com to send e-mail to [email protected] to go to your real e-mail account. Then, every time you go to a website and have to give an e-mail address, use [email protected]. For example, for activecaptain, set your e-mail address to be [email protected]. That way, if you ever start getting spammed you can automatically junk mail sent to that one particular e-mail address and you'll know who is selling your name.


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## JeffreySiegel (Jun 8, 2007)

One additional thing about this registration issue (and I know I should just shut up already)...

It's true that you don't have to register with SailNet until you want to make postings. But part of that reason is that SailNet doesn't mind you accessing their site to "watch" because they get advertising revenue. Scroll to the top left and see.

With ActiveCaptain, there is no advertising. We don't want there to be a hint of tampering with review and content data because of advertising. I'm not saying that tampering exists here - I know it doesn't. But SailNet is a conversation. The main value is the give and take we provide to each other. AC's data is more static and reference like. It was important to me to draw the distinction between what we're doing and the advertising-filled-guidebooks that never say a negative thing about a marina.

Registration cuts down on spam entries by a huge amount. I believe it also promotes users to make updates - the lifeblood of the system. By registering upfront, anyone viewing info can click and fix. I like that.

Also, if you aren't registered, you still can pan around the maps and see the markers getting an idea of the amount of data in the system. The only thing you can't do is view the details and review or add new data.

I still think it's a fair tradeoff.


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## christyleigh (Dec 17, 2001)

Freesail99 said:


> If I knew the names of the marinas I wouldn't need activecaptain or any other site. I wanted a list of marinas and around the chesapeake bay as I am in Southern New Jersey. I was also using the "marina tab".


Free - The AtlanticCruisingClub.com mentioned earlier seems to do exactly what you want. I am a member but it was no big deal to become a 'limited' member. No zooming just point and click your way to the multiple sections of the Chesapeake for a list of marinas.


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

christyleigh said:


> Free - The AtlanticCruisingClub.com mentioned earlier seems to do exactly what you want. I am a member but it was no big deal to become a 'limited' member. No zooming just point and click your way to the multiple sections of the Chesapeake for a list of marinas.


Thank you very much. In all fairness, I have to say that I went to active captain at least 4 or 5 times, in the past 24 hours. In all but my last try did I get any information. The maps for some reason were not loading information for me to see. I have a relatively new laptop and have been on the "Internet" since 1992. So I am not new to this. Not sure why it didn't at first work. With that said, I can see why some would like it. I just don't happen to be one.


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## labatt (Jul 31, 2006)

sailingdog said:


> Or you could just get a free Google mail-gmail.com account.


Actually it's pretty different. You'd have to sign up for a new gmail account for each site if you wanted to selectively track who is sharing your address and be able to selectively filter. With this method you have all your e-mail land in your normal e-mail box, you can track who is sharing your e-mail address and you can auto-trash specific addresses. You have a virtually unlimited supply of addresses that you can post anywhere. You get what you pay for...


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Labatt-

Gmail will allow you to modify your e-mail address to track things like that to some degree. It is really up to how tightly filtered the e-mail input forms are at various sites. For instance if you have labatt [at] gmail.com and you wanted to sign up for sailnet, you could use labatt+snc [at] gmail.com as your e-mail address and gmail would accept that. Then you could use labatt+acc [at] gmail.com for your activecaptain.com e-mail address. No forwarding, no domain registration, no other work necessary.


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## night0wl (Mar 20, 2006)

I'm loving activecaptain. The first sailing related Web 2.0 site...sweet! Cant wait till th content catches up with the concept. 

BTW, what do they say about Web 2.0....you provide the content, the company collects the revenue :-D


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## pesquala21 (Jul 31, 2006)

I also love the activecaptain.com site, has lots of usefull info it, came across this one as well, could also be usefull to all as they let you do tons of stuff on it...no links edit-cam


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