Marina service
Sol Marina (Marina Quays)
About
Sol Marina (Marina Quays) at a glance
Boat pen hire at Marina Quays, Marlin Terrace, Exmouth, housing boats up to 19.8 m for stays from one night to several months. No power or water is provided at the pens and the marina has a bridge height clearance of 6.0 m at highest astronomical tide; overnight stays are capped at 20 nights per year. Boat pen hire at Marina Quays, 24 Marlin Tce, Exmouth; pens take vessels to 19.8m with weekly, monthly and annual rates; no power or water at the pens; bridge height clearance 6.0m at HAT; overnight stays on board capped at 20 nights per year; gas compliance certificate required for vessels with gas; Sol Marina residences and commercial spaces at the marina coming 2026
Service area: Gascoyne
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Sol Marina (private)
- Region
- Gascoyne
- Water body
- Exmouth Gulf
- Maximum vessel
- 19.8 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- online booking
- weekly, monthly and annual pen hire
- no power or water at pens
- bridge clearance 6.0 m at HAT
- 20-night annual overnight cap
- gas compliance requirement
About Sol Marina (Marina Quays)
Sol Marina is the pen-hire operation at Marina Quays, a canal-estate development on Marlin Terrace a few minutes from Exmouth's town centre, and it is a different creature from the working harbour up the road. The offer is simple: floating pens in a dredged canal basin behind a road bridge, for boats up to 19.8 metres, bookable by the week, month or year through the operator's website. There is no fuel jetty, no chandlery, no clubhouse and, pointedly, no power or water at the pens, which keeps fees down and suits the Exmouth pattern of boats that live on their pens and are used hard by day. The development around the basin is still filling out, with the operator marketing Sol Marina residences and commercial spaces at the marina from 2026, but the pens themselves are established and governed by a detailed published rule set: a 6.0-metre bridge height clearance at highest astronomical tide, a cap of 20 overnight stays aboard per year, and firm insurance and gas-compliance requirements. The practical effect is a marina of day boats and fishing rigs rather than liveaboard cruisers, in a town where secure pen space is otherwise scarce and the state harbour's lists are long. For visiting boats it fills the gap between anchoring in the Gulf and licensing a full-service pen, and for locals it turns a canal frontage into usable boat storage. The canal setting gives the pens a degree of shelter the open harbour cannot match, and the basin's foot traffic is mostly residents and pen holders rather than tourists. As Marina Quays builds out, the operator clearly intends the pens to anchor a broader waterfront precinct, but for now the appeal is precisely that nothing much happens here beyond boats coming and going.
Marina facilities
Rates are published plainly on the Sol Marina website, GST inclusive: a weekly pen costs $315 for boats under 10 metres and $470 for boats of 10 metres and above, while monthly pens start from $1,000 under 10 metres, from $1,500 for boats of 10 to 15 metres, and run to $2,000 for 15 metres and above; annual arrangements are handled by enquiry. Maximum vessel length is 19.8 metres measured overall, including bowsprits, marlin boards and outboards, and the vessel must not exceed the stated length of its pen. Applicants must hold public liability insurance of at least $10 million, lodged with the application form and maintained for the licence duration, and vessels carrying gas need a current gas compliance certificate renewed every five years. Pens may not be sublet or transferred without written approval, allocation is at management's discretion subject to availability, and licences are subject to the marina rules and the Shire of Exmouth waterways local law. The two constraints that shape who berths here are the bridge and the night cap: air draft must fit within 6.0 metres at highest astronomical tide, and staying aboard is limited to 20 nights per calendar year, so this is storage and staging rather than accommodation. No power or water is provided at the pens, a point owners of larger craft should factor into their plans. The operator takes bookings on 0408 905 448 or online, from 24 Marlin Terrace, Exmouth. Booking and payment run through the website's service pages, which double as the rulebook: the cancellation and compliance policy is published in full, covering everything from allocation discretion to the obligation to keep vessels safe, seaworthy and tidy. Pens are allocated for the approved vessel only, and the licence regime is administered against the Shire of Exmouth's waterways local law.
Local sailing knowledge
Marina Quays sits in the canal estate on the town side of Exmouth, so the first piece of local knowledge is the bridge: 6.0 metres of clearance at highest astronomical tide means flybridge cruisers and anything with a mast must do their sums against the tide board, and regulars simply time entries and exits for lower water. The canal system connects to Exmouth Gulf, opening the same cruising ground as the boat harbour: sheltered Gulf anchorages, the Muiron Islands, and the run around North West Cape to the Ningaloo lagoon, with the caveat that tidal streams in the Gulf are respectable and the shallow banks shift after big weather. Because the pens carry no power or water, owners treat the marina as a base rather than a service stop. Fuel, water, ice, bait and mechanical help all come from the boat harbour precinct a few minutes away, where the fuel farm, Base Marine's 320-tonne lifter and the public ramps are located. Town provisioning is close, with supermarkets, tackle and hardware all within a short drive along Murat Road, and the canal estate itself is slated to gain residences and commercial tenancies from 2026, which should put coffee and supplies within walking distance of the pens. Seasonal rhythm matters: book early for the May-to-September influx, respect the whale-season approach rules in the Gulf, and keep the 20-night annual cap firmly in mind when planning any stay aboard. The canal estate's other users are paddlers and small tinnies, so wake discipline inside the system is expected and enforced by local law rather than marina staff alone. For crews used to full-service marinas, the trick is logistics: load water, fuel and ice at the boat harbour before shifting to the pen, and the rest of an Exmouth stay is as simple as the town itself.