Review: The New Port Henry Marina on Lake Champlain

The marina itself was raised a couple feet with gravel.

Seldom has a marina undergone such a extreme makeover as Port Henry has. I once kept a 23' sail boat out of there when it was owned by the Velez family back in the late 80's. Many things have changed since those days.  The marina location was used as the site for the construction of the bridge at Crown Point. Once New York and Vermont were done using the location it was turned over to the owner who has been installing a first rate marina.


The most important part of a marina isn't its equipment or its location. The most important part is the service and staff. I found Dave the manager to be knowledgeable and accomodating. He has big plans for the marina and is well on his way to implementing them.  The other people working there were very polite and helpful as well.

Fishing Docks

The site has been raised with gravel from the old marina so that it can operate at over 100 feet of water level. It is well protected by the two breakwaters that were installed by the state. The breakwaters separate the fishing boats which leave early in the morning and the cruising boats which tend to sleep in. It is a neat concept that will ensure quieter mornings for both parties. It might be a little rough on a mooring in a northerly breeze but the docks are well protected.

One of the large power distribution boxes.

breakwater

There is a 25 Ton travel lift and plenty of water under the lift to get boats out. The travel lift is used to place the boats on the cradles and or jackstands.  This will handle very large boats. Once I got a look at the lift and the space, I decided to move my boat there for the winter. There will be power and water available for people to work on their boats in the spring on the hard.

The docks were brand new and really nice. I especially like the height of the docks. I didn't need a ladder to get down to the dock from the deck of my boat.  The new docks have brand new power poles and several large service panels are spread out. There seems to be plenty of infrastructure available for the place to expand. When you build from the ground up you can put in good equipment and these docs were as good as any I had been on around the lake. The lighted power poles were also very nice.

There is a brand new pumpout on the work dock. You enter the northerly section of the marina and the pumpout dock is on the end of the first dock on your right. Water and electricity were easy to reach and I had no trouble getting my 42' boat into the first set of docks.

The bathrooms were just being finished as I visited. They were brand new and were very clean. On the other end of the building there were two drains being plumbed in for laundry. I can't think of very many marinas with laundry in them on this lake.

The good and the bad. Many of the marinas on the New York shore of Lake Champlain have to deal with sound from trains as they travel north toward Montreal.  We heard 4 trains go through in the 24 hours we were there. Most of them were tankers cars with oil. I believe one was at night. Both marinas in the Port Henry area have train tracks near them. There is a state boat launch just south of the marina and there is a lot of traffic but it won't upset the marina patrons as it is far enough away. There is a dollar store and an ice cream stand a few hundred feet away and up the hill in town you will find a real grocery store which is the only one I can think of on the lake other than in Burlington. The town is very quiet and although it has seen better days during the mining era of days gone by, it seemed to still be a quiet Adirondack town. There are a places to eat in town and even a small little trailer that serves breakfast at the state boat launch. There are also several vacant buildings in town. This marina might bring in more people during the summer which the local economy could use. The mining museum in town is worth a visit if you are staying for long enough for a good walk.

Prices are reasonable. You can check out their website at http://porthenrymarina.com/

This blog was written on 8/10/14 and is my personal opinion about my visit.