Dataw Island Marina Plans Wet Slip Replacement

More than two years after Hurricane Matthew destroyed Dataw Island Marina’s 85 wet slips, the marina’s new owners hope to get the facility back into full operation later this spring. Renovation plans for the marina, located on the Morgan River just three miles from the Intracoastal Waterway, call for a single 420-foot, side-tie dock that can accommodate boats up to 50 tons on both sides.

Members of Dataw Island Club, located on a coastal island near Beaufort, South Carolina, voted to purchase the marina in the fall of 2018. The previous owners had been unable to make the necessary repairs, and the three-year deadline for installing replacement docks without new permitting was getting closer. The sale was due to be completed in late January/early February 2019.

Dataw Island Marina’s 100 dry storage spaces survived the hurricane and were still being used. The Ace Basin and Boat Works boatyard and the Sweet Grass restaurant were also spared and remained open. But the Dataw Island Club property owners missed the wet slips.

“It was just barely operating; it wasn’t the full-service marina it was in its heyday,” said Laura McCarthy, the marketing and communications director for the club.

Although most of the boats docked at the marina will belong to club members, there will also be some spaces left for transient boaters as well.
A marina group at the Dataw Island Club is working with Ted Bartlett, the club’s general manager, to find sources and get quotes for the slip replacement project. In anticipation of the sale, the new owners repaved and repaired the travel lift pier where boats in dry storage are lifted in and out of the water.

“After two years without a fully operational marina, we are thrilled to be reopening the facility,” Bartlett said. “The improvements we have planned will return the Dataw Marina to the fine amenity that our members, locals and traveling boaters have come to know and love.” If the demand is there, and the owner/community approves, the marina could add more wet slips in the future