Docking facilities for visitors in the main harbor at Funchal have improved greatly with the opening of the new Porto de Recreio next door to the old yacht marina. Whilst heavily used by day-tripper boats, there is now much more space for larger yachts and a long breakwater for rafting alongside should space be limited. The marina, however, does not have any shoreside facilities and security is minimal due to crowds of tourists moving around the pontoons to and from day tripper boats.
The 2 marinas here offer visiting yachts the chance to be moored right in the center of town, which makes visiting the capital and all its sights easy.
During the busy months of October and November, it is highly recommended to book a berth in advance at either of the 2 marinas. Note that during public holidays there are no dockmasters available.
An increasing number of cruise ships are calling here and berth alongside the inside of the outer breakwater, opposite the 2 marinas. They generally arrive early morning and depart in the evening.
Funchal marina does have a fuel dock but it is advisable to call them ahead of time to see when or if they can accommodate a boat, as commercial catamarans use it to load and unload their passengers.
Should space be tight in Funchal, Marina Quinta do Lorde, 2 nm from Canal at the eastern end of the island, will have space. This marina is however very remote and you would need a hire car to provision and get around. Fuel is available here.
Last updated: September 2018
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There is now 8 visitor berths available in the new harbour run by Porto Funchal. If you are at Porto Santo, they can assist in booking a berth.
We visited Funchal Marina in March 2016. It was Easter, so no marina staff were at the marina and we had to look for a berth ourselves. We could not find a berth for 15m length. We had just 12kn of wind, but I wouldn’t have liked to try to turn the boat with more wind than that because of lack of space. We asked a boat that had been in the marina a few days if they knew of berths for our size of boat. They didn’t know of berths that size. The reception pontoon looked very bad and short. Even with a 13m boat, I wouldn’t have wanted to go alongside there. The reception pontoon was also very low.
We decided to go to Qunita do Lorde Marina instead. There they had pontoons even for at least 20m boats and no lack of space to turn out boat or lack of berthing space in March.