Anna Maria Island Boating & Water Access: Ramps, Marinas, and Private Docks

Coquina Beach Boat Ramps: Reopened After the 2024 Hurricanes, One Renamed in 2025

The island's public boat-launch access runs through Manatee County's Coquina Beach ramps, at the south end of the island near Bradenton Beach: a north ramp and a south ramp. Both were damaged and closed following the 2024 hurricane season -- Hurricane Helene's storm surge in late September, then Hurricane Milton in October, the same one-two punch that closed the Anna Maria Island Bridge for days and destroyed the historic Rod and Reel Pier. Both Coquina Beach ramps were back open by January 2, 2025, a concrete, dateable marker of how much of the island's basic water-access infrastructure had to be rebuilt in the storms' aftermath.

In May 2025, the north ramp was renamed the Scott Moore Boat Ramp, honoring a local charter captain. It's a small detail, but a telling one: a piece of public boating infrastructure named for a working member of the island's fishing community, on a ramp that had been sitting damaged just months earlier.

Marinas: Resort-Style, Working-Waterfront, and Mainland Options

Marina options around Anna Maria Island split across a mix of settings rather than one uniform type. In Cortez, the working fishing village adjacent to the island's south end, Loggerhead Marina-Cortez Village Marina serves that harbor. On the island itself, Galati Yacht Basin sits in the Town of Anna Maria at the north end, Waterline Marina Resort & Beach Club is in Holmes Beach in the middle, and Bradenton Beach Marina serves the south end. Several additional marinas on the mainland side, in Bradenton and Palmetto, round out the options that also serve the island's boating market -- worth knowing about for anyone who can't find slip space on the island itself.

That spread means the right marina depends heavily on what kind of experience someone wants: a resort-style marina attached to a beach club is a different proposition than a slip in a working fishing harbor, even though both put a boat in the same general body of water.

Cortez: A Working Fishing Village, Not a Marina Amenity

Cortez sits just off the island's south end, adjacent to Bradenton Beach, and it's worth treating as its own thing rather than folding it into "Anna Maria Island marinas" generically. Founded in the 1880s, Cortez is one of the last working commercial fishing villages left on Florida's Gulf Coast -- a genuinely different kind of water-access community than the island's resort marinas, built around commercial fishing rather than recreational boating and beach-club amenities.

That working-waterfront identity isn't just historical description; it shows up in what Cortez still does. Loggerhead Marina-Cortez Village Marina operates there alongside an active commercial fishing fleet, and the village is home to the Florida Maritime Museum. Anyone boating out of Cortez should expect a harbor that shares space with commercial fishing operations, not just recreational traffic.

Key Royale: Private Canal-Front Docks, a Different Water-Access Product Entirely

Not all water access on Anna Maria Island runs through a public ramp or a commercial marina slip. Key Royale, a gated, single-bridge-access enclave inside Holmes Beach, is built around canals rather than direct Gulf beachfront, and many of its homes come with private boat docks as part of the property itself. That's a genuinely different water-access product than beachfront Gulf access: instead of walking to the sand and launching or chartering from a public ramp or marina, a Key Royale homeowner can typically walk out a back door to a private dock on a canal.

Key Royale is also known for its private, members-only 9-hole Key Royale Club golf course and tennis -- an amenity combination layered on top of the canal-front docks that makes it a distinct product from the rest of the island's boating and water-access options, not just a quieter residential pocket of Holmes Beach.

Bridges as a Boating Consideration: Connecting Gulf, Sound, and Bay Waters

Anna Maria Island's three bridges matter for boating planning as much as they do for road access, because each one connects genuinely different bodies of water. The Anna Maria Island Bridge (SR 64) and the Cortez Bridge (SR 684) both link the island to the mainland, crossing over Anna Maria Sound and bay waters rather than the open Gulf. At the island's south end, the Longboat Pass Bridge connects to neighboring Longboat Key, spanning the pass where bay and sound waters meet the Gulf.

For anyone trailering a boat, chartering a run that needs to pass under one of these bridges, or simply planning a route between the Gulf side and the sound/bay side of the island, bridge clearance and any storm-related bridge closures (both the Anna Maria Island Bridge and the Cortez Bridge saw closures during the 2024 hurricanes) are worth confirming before counting on a particular route.

Direct Gulf Exposure: The Same Geography Is Both the Appeal and the Risk

It's worth stating plainly what the island's geography means for boating: because Anna Maria Island fronts the Gulf of Mexico directly rather than sitting behind a protected sound or barrier system, direct-Gulf access is a real, tangible amenity here -- boats can reach open Gulf water without the longer run through a pass that some other Florida barrier islands require. But that same direct exposure is why the island took a direct hit from both Hurricane Helene's storm surge and Hurricane Milton within about two weeks of each other in 2024, damaging boat ramps, marinas, piers, and hundreds of properties across all three of the island's towns. The appeal and the risk are the same geography, not two separate stories.

Before You Boat Here: Confirm Current Ramp, Marina, and Closure Status

Marina availability, boat-ramp conditions, and storm-related closures all change on Anna Maria Island, and the 2024-2025 recovery timeline here -- ramps closed by hurricane damage, then reopened, then a renaming months later -- is a real example of how fast that status can shift. Confirm current information directly with Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources for ramp status at Coquina Beach, and with the relevant marina (Loggerhead Marina-Cortez Village Marina, Galati Yacht Basin, Waterline Marina Resort & Beach Club, or Bradenton Beach Marina) before planning a boating trip based on anything here.