The Med is running out of room for big yachts

The least-discussed constraint in the Mediterranean is neither fuel, nor crew, nor regulation. It is the linear metre of quay. The fleet is growing fast, it is growing above all in length, and the infrastructure meant to receive it is built on a timescale that bears no relation. For a manager this has stopped being a seasonal anecdote: it is now a planning variable on a par with a yard period.

A fleet growing faster than the quays

The figures published this summer put a number on the gap. The global fleet stands at 6,239 vessels over 30 metres, with 685 projects in the construction book. Average build length has reached 48.5 metres, an all-time high. More tellingly, the 60-90 metre segment has grown 35% since 2020, while vessels under 40 metres — still 63% of the operating fleet — account for only 40% of the order book. In short: what is arriving on the market is structurally longer than what is already on it.

The Mediterranean absorbs more than a quarter of that global fleet and runs close to full occupancy in peak season. The strain is not evenly spread: it is above 50 metres that berth shortages have become routine, precisely the segment growing fastest. To which are added constraints often discovered too late — available water depth, quay load capacity, shore power, and coastal planning permissions that block the extension of existing facilities.

Anchoring no longer works as the relief valve

Historically, when the marina was full, you anchored. That escape route has largely closed. Good anchorages — sheltered from the prevailing wind, close inshore, deep enough — are finite in number, and most are now off-limits to anchors in order to protect the Posidonia seagrass.

Corsica illustrates the mechanism well. The number of large yachts visiting the island’s protected zones rose between 2020 and 2025, yet the proportion actually anchoring on protected seagrass fell from 35% in 2019 to 6% in 2025. That is an unambiguous environmental success, and it is simultaneously a mechanical reduction in capacity: the same bay receives more vessels and offers fewer lawful holding points. Organised anchoring zones and mooring buoy fields absorb part of the overflow — but they too have a finite number of places, and a booking.

Supply is moving, a decade behind

Operators are investing. The D-Marin network now runs more than 14,000 berths across 26 marinas in nine countries, including more than 1,000 dedicated superyacht berths, and its commercial leadership describes demand for large berths as one of the market’s fastest-growing segments. Port Tarraco, in Catalonia, has reconfigured around 64 berths for vessels of 30 to 160 metres. In Sardinia, Marina di Olbia has added a dock able to take up to 150 metres, plus fourteen mooring buoys. In Tuscany, Punta Ala is committing €50-60 million to move up to 60 metres. Marina Genova, for its part, closed 2024 on €15 million of turnover, up 20%, with occupancy close to 100%.

A marina takes five to ten years to design, permit and build; a 70-metre yacht is ordered and delivered in three or four. That gap will not close over a single season.

Owner demographics compound the pressure at the top of the market. First-time buyers now account for 31% of new builds and 37% of the brokerage market, with a 35% rise in the number of new owners. They no longer enter at the bottom and work upwards: they start directly between 40 and 70 metres. Average owner age has fallen from roughly 65 to below 55 in a decade.

What this changes in running a season

The practical conclusion is mundane and rarely applied: the berth stops being a last-minute adjustment variable and becomes a contractual commitment taken well in advance.

Secure the home berth annually rather than on a seasonal contract, even at the cost of unused weeks: the difference costs less than an August programme rebuilt in June.
Book the structuring calls twelve months out, particularly above 50 metres and during event peaks.
Write a plan B for each call — alternative port, organised anchoring zone, buoy field — instead of improvising one on arrival.
Check the technical specification before booking, not just the length available: draught alongside, shore power rating and connector format, quay load capacity, access for deliveries and provisioning.
Put the constraint in front of the owner early: for some destinations the real question is no longer “can we go?” but “do we have a berth, and which one?”.

The operators coming through this period best are those building flexibility into their planning rather than assuming a berth will always turn up. In the Mediterranean, in August, it will not.

The Med is running out of room for big yachts

A fleet growing faster than the quays

Anchoring no longer works as the relief valve

Supply is moving, a decade behind

What this changes in running a season

Sources

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