Boating & Water Access in Newburyport, MA

The Merrimack River Waterfront and Boardwalk

Downtown Newburyport's waterfront centers on Waterfront Park, a boardwalk along the Merrimack River tucked behind the Firehouse Center for the Arts, lined with benches for watching boat traffic on the river. It's managed by the Newburyport Waterfront Trust, a five-member board of mayoral appointees whose stated mandate is keeping the public ways and boardwalk open for general public use — the park hosts exercise classes, summer weddings, and concerts and theater during events like Yankee Homecoming and the Riverfront Music Festival.

A proposed Waterfront Master Plan from Union Studio Architecture and Design has floated two three-story mixed-use buildings and expanded parking for the waterfront area; a citizen group called Citizens for an Open Waterfront has pushed back, preferring open river views and recreational amenities like volleyball courts and wading pools instead. Separately, the city's roughly $6 million Market Landing Park expansion converted waterfront parking lots into green space, eliminating access to the Water Street municipal lot during construction and prompting real pushback from downtown merchants over lost foot traffic — the city has directed displaced parkers to the Green Street and Titcomb Street garages, Waterfront East/West and Prince Place lots, and parking behind Bartlet Mall. Both the master-plan debate and the parking fallout were still live, unresolved local stories as of the reporting behind this page — check current status before assuming either is settled.

Coast Guard Station Merrimack River

Coast Guard Station Merrimack River sits at 65B Water Street, staffed by roughly 30 active-duty personnel and running 24/7 with a 29-foot response boat and two 47-foot motor lifeboats rated for conditions up to 50-knot winds and 20-foot breaking surf. It's one of only 19 designated surf stations in the entire country, the only one in New England, and one of just four along the whole East Coast — a real, current operational designation, not a historical label, reflecting how rough the water at the Merrimack's mouth actually gets.

Newburyport is also a Coast Guard City, tied to the 1791 launch of the revenue cutter Massachusetts here — credited by Coast Guard and local historical tradition as a birthplace of the modern service, though the ship itself had a notably short, troubled service life before being judged too slow and too costly. The current station building dates to 1882, on land conveyed in 1881. The station opens to the public for a Coast Guard open house during Yankee Homecoming each August, with boat tours and a chance to meet crew.

Four Marinas on the Merrimack — Newburyport Marinas Group

Four marina facilities operate along the Merrimack under a shared "Newburyport Marinas" umbrella and guest-card program: Newburyport Harbor Marina, Hilton's Marina, Windward Yacht Yard, and Newburyport Boat Basin. Collectively they're described as offering more than 500 slips and can accommodate vessels up to 125 feet, with a shared fuel dock running 7am to 5pm daily through mid-October.

Of the four, Newburyport Boat Basin's own listing is the most specific: 346R Merrimac Street, 225 total slips with 10 held for transient boaters, free water and WiFi, pumpout, showers, laundry, a ship store, and a 35-ton travel lift for haulout and repair. Individual slip counts and exact addresses for the other three facilities were not independently confirmed in this research pass — call ahead or check newburyportmarinas.com directly before planning a stay.

Newburyport Yacht Club, the Harbormaster, and Cashman Park Boat Launch

Newburyport Yacht Club, at 300R Merrimac Street, is a separate, member-based club distinct from the commercial marinas above. The city's own Harbormaster Department, led by Harbormaster Paul Hogg and based at 27 Rear Water Street behind the Custom House Maritime Museum, patrols the river and harbor and runs the public-facing boating infrastructure.

The Cashman Park Boat Launch, about half a mile from Route 1, is open 24 hours a day, 364 days a year — closed only on the first Saturday of August for the Yankee Homecoming fireworks. It has 136 trailer parking spaces; a single-day fee of $20 covers parking and launch access (self-pay envelope and green box when no attendant is present), and a $150 seasonal pass is available starting Memorial Day weekend. Dockhands staff the ramp mid-May through mid-October.

The city's Central Waterfront Docks handle transient dockage from Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day weekend, booked through the Dockwa app; arriving boats hail the dockmaster on VHF channel 12. Hourly rates run from $15 for a under-20-foot boat up to three hours to $110 for a 41-to-60-foot boat staying six to nine hours; overnight rates run $4 to $9 per foot depending on vessel size and day of week, with water and electricity included. Three guest moorings are also available overnight at $50 each, booked through Dockwa, with arrival after 2pm and departure before 11am.

Plum Island Point — Newburyport's Own River-Mouth Beach Access

Plum Island's main village, its refuge acreage, and its larger buyout and erosion story sit mostly in the neighboring towns of Newbury and Ipswich, covered on this site's dedicated Plum Island page. But Newburyport does administer its own slice of the island directly at the river's mouth: Plum Island Point Beach and its parking lot, on the island's northern end, entered near 278 Northern Blvd and managed by the Harbormaster Department.

Parking is first-come, first-served through the Passport Parking app (Zone 2160) at $10 weekdays and $12 weekends/holidays for Newburyport residents, and $20 weekdays and $25 weekends/holidays for everyone else — advance payment doesn't hold a spot if the lot fills. Swimming is prohibited in the river and off the sandbar here, and driving in through the adjacent Reservation Terrace neighborhood is not permitted; vehicles that try are subject to fines and towing. Reservation Terrace itself is the residential street at the center of Newburyport's ongoing FEMA-funded flood buyout program — a genuine, currently unfolding city-government story, but one this page intentionally doesn't re-narrate in full; see this site's community and flood-risk coverage of Newburyport for that angle.

Whale Watching and Fishing Charters

Newburyport Whale Watch, based at 54 Merrimac Street, currently runs the Captain's Lady III, a 106-foot, Midship Marine–built vessel with three Caterpillar diesels producing a combined 3,600 horsepower, a cruising speed over 20 knots, and capacity for 100 passengers. That boat has already been sold: a new flagship, the 130-foot, 29-foot-beam Captain's Lady IV, is under construction at Midship Marine in Harvey, Louisiana, and is expected to enter service for the 2026 season. The new vessel roughly doubles capacity to 300 passengers, runs on four Caterpillar C32 engines at a combined 3,200 horsepower with an expected top speed of 25 knots, and adds a triple-deck layout with a tiered stadium-style bow platform, climate-controlled interior spaces, two concession stands, and seven heads — built, per the owner, to handle whale watches, evening cruises, weddings, and corporate events on the same hull.

Two Captains Charters, run by Captain Jeff aboard The Reel Easy out of Newburyport, offers offshore trips (8 hours), inshore trips (5 to 8 hours), dedicated bluefin tuna trips (9 to 10 hours), 3-hour evening fishing, and day or evening cruises, targeting cod, haddock, pollock, striped bass, bluefish, mackerel, and giant bluefin tuna. Published 2026 rates run from $650 for a 1-to-4-person evening trip up to $1,750 for a 1-to-3-person bluefin tuna charter, with full-day inshore or offshore trips in the $1,375–$1,475 range for up to six people; booking is by phone or text, with 48 hours' cancellation notice required and weather cancellations at the captain's discretion.

The Merrimack River Bar — A Real Hazard, Not Just Local Lore

The sandbar and shoal at the Merrimack's mouth, near Plum Island — commonly called "the bar" — has a well-documented history of danger to small craft, the subject of specific Coast Guard and regional news warnings to boaters over the years and a long list of historical wrecks in the area. It's a legitimate factor in trip planning here, not a scare story: check current conditions and any active Coast Guard advisories before crossing it in anything but calm, settled weather.

What This Means If You're on the Water in Newburyport

The honest summary: Newburyport's boating scene is a working river waterfront, not a beach-town marina row — four marinas and a yacht club along the Merrimack, a 24/7 city boat launch at Cashman Park, transient docks and guest moorings run by the Harbormaster, an active Coast Guard surf station, and a small, separately administered public beach and parking lot at Plum Island Point. A brand-new 130-foot whale watch vessel arriving for 2026 and a locally based fishing-charter operator round out the picture, alongside a genuinely hazardous river-mouth sandbar worth respecting.

What this page deliberately doesn't do is invent slip counts for the three marinas beyond Newburyport Boat Basin, assert a settled outcome to the Market Landing Park parking dispute or the Waterfront Master Plan debate, or re-tell Plum Island's island-wide refuge and buyout story that belongs to this site's dedicated Plum Island coverage. Call the Harbormaster's office, newburyportmarinas.com, or the individual charter operators directly to confirm current-season specifics before you plan around them.