Cabo Marina Boat Slip Costs: What It Actually Costs to Dock a Boat in Los Cabos

Buyers ask me constantly if a waterfront home in Cabo comes with a boat slip. It doesn't — and understanding why changes how you should shop for marina-adjacent real estate.

The Slip Ownership Reality Nobody Explains Up Front

First thing to get straight: you cannot buy a boat slip in Los Cabos the way you can buy one in South Florida or parts of the Bahamas. Mexico has no dockominium or fee-simple slip title structure. Every berth at every marina in the country — IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas, Marina Puerto Los Cabos, Marina Costa Baja in La Paz, all of them — is a rental contract with the marina operator. Annual, seasonal, or transient. That's it.

This matters more than people think when they're shopping waterfront property in Cabo. A home in Pedregal with a private tender dock is not the same thing as a slip at IGY that can hold a 60-foot sportfisher. If having a slip for your own boat is a dealbreaker, you need to separate the real estate question from the marina-access question entirely — they're not automatically bundled, even in developments that look marina-adjacent on a map.

IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas: The Downtown Fleet

IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas sits right in downtown Cabo San Lucas, walking distance to the Marina Boardwalk restaurants and the sportfishing fleet's daily weigh-ins. It has 380 slips and can accommodate vessels up to 375 feet with a 29-foot draft — genuinely superyacht capacity, which is part of why it's the anchor marina for Los Cabos' billfish tournament season.

Here's the practical problem: long-term annual contracts rarely become available. Demand from the sportfishing fleet, charter operators, and owners who want a permanent Cabo San Lucas berth outpaces turnover. If you're buying a boat and want a guaranteed downtown slip, plan on a waitlist, a broker relationship at the marina, or starting on transient/seasonal terms while you wait for an annual slot to open.

• Location: Downtown Cabo San Lucas, walkable to the Marina Boardwalk
• Slip count: 380
• Max vessel size: Up to 375ft / 114m
• Draft: 29ft
• Fleet character: Heavy sportfishing presence, charter operators, superyachts during tournament season

Marina Puerto Los Cabos: The Expanding Alternative

Marina Puerto Los Cabos, near San Jose del Cabo, currently has 230 slips with expansion plans that would take it to 400. It's the more realistic entry point if you're relocating and want a marina slip attached to a residential community rather than a downtown tourist marina.

Published rates run $23 to $32 per foot per month, and that typically bundles WiFi, water, and security into the base rate rather than billing them separately. If you own property inside the Puerto Los Cabos development, you get roughly a 10% discount off posted rates — a real incentive if you're weighing whether to buy in the marina district versus elsewhere in Puerto Los Cabos or San Jose del Cabo.

Marina	Slips	Max Vessel	Published Rate
IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas	380	375ft / 29ft draft	Not publicly posted per-foot; annual slips rarely open
Marina Puerto Los Cabos	230 (expanding to 400)	Varies by dock	$23-$32/ft (owner discount ~10%)
Marina Costa Baja (La Paz)	Varies	Up to 200ft+	$17-$50/ft monthly; $2-$3.50/ft daily

Why I Still Bring Up La Paz

Marina Costa Baja in La Paz isn't in Los Cabos proper, but I bring it up because clients cross-shop it constantly, especially anyone considering the quieter Pacific side or East Cape lifestyle. Costa Baja posts monthly rates from about $17 per foot for a 30-foot slip up to $50 per foot for a 200-foot yacht, with daily transient rates of $2 to $3.50 per foot. That's meaningfully cheaper than what you'll pay in Los Cabos, but La Paz is roughly a 2.5-hour drive from Cabo San Lucas. If you want to use your boat spontaneously on a Saturday morning rather than plan a road trip to reach it, the savings evaporate fast against the convenience cost.

The Temporary Import Permit: Don't Skip This

If your boat is registered outside Mexico and measures more than 4.5 meters (about 14.7 feet), you need a Temporary Import Permit, or TIP, issued through Banjercito before you can legally keep it in Mexican waters. As of April 2026, the permit costs roughly 1,200 pesos — around $55 USD — and is valid for five years, which is a meaningful improvement over the shorter windows that used to require more frequent renewals.

The part people forget: the TIP has to be formally canceled at Banjercito before you sell the boat or transfer ownership to a buyer. Skip that step and the new owner inherits a paperwork headache, and you can end up flagged in the system for a vessel that's no longer yours. If you're buying a used boat already in Mexican waters, confirm the TIP status before you close — it should transfer cleanly, but only if the seller does the cancellation and re-registration correctly.

• Who needs it: Foreign-flagged/foreign-registered boats over 4.5m (14.7ft)
• Cost: Roughly 1,200 pesos (~$55 USD) as of April 2026
• Validity: 5 years
• Issuing authority: Banjercito
• Before a sale: Must be canceled at Banjercito prior to ownership transfer

For the current fee schedule and application requirements, check Banjercito's official site directly rather than relying on secondhand numbers — permit costs and terms get updated periodically.

If You'd Rather Charter Than Own

A lot of my clients start as charter customers before they ever consider buying a boat, and honestly, for most part-time residents it's the smarter math. Standard sportfishing and sunset charters in Cabo run $1,000 to $3,000 a day. Luxury charters push past $5,000. At the high end, premium yacht charters range from about $2,900 for a 4-hour outing on a 48-footer up to $14,500 for a full day on a 130-foot yacht.

Run the numbers before you commit to ownership: slip rental, insurance, crew or dockhand costs, fuel, and maintenance add up fast on a boat that might see 15-20 days of actual use a year if you're a part-time resident. Chartering when you're in town and skipping slip rental entirely is a completely legitimate strategy, and I tell clients this even though it doesn't help me sell waterfront property — it's just the honest math. For deeper detail on the charter market itself, see my guides to deep-sea fishing charters in Cabo and luxury yacht charters.

What Boats People Actually Run Here

For owners who want their own boat in the water year-round, three categories dominate:

• Center consoles / "super pangas" (around 23ft): The workhorse for inshore and near-offshore fishing. Easy to trailer, cheap to maintain relative to a sportfisher, and the most common first boat for new Cabo owners.
• Flybridge sportfishers: The standard for serious offshore billfishing. These are what fill the IGY tournament docks and what most charter operations run.
• Power catamarans and motor yachts: Increasingly popular with owners splitting time between entertaining, cruising the Sea of Cortez, and occasional fishing rather than dedicated angling.

Whatever you run, budget beyond the slip rate itself. There's a government fuel-dock use fee — roughly $129 for a 42-foot boat at current rates — every time you fuel at the marina, plus electricity, pump-out, and security charges the marina bills separately from the base slip contract. Ask for the full fee schedule in writing before you sign, not just the headline per-foot rate.

The Real Cost of Boat Ownership, Beyond the Slip

The slip rate is the number everyone quotes, but it's rarely the biggest line item once you own the boat for a full year. Here's what else factors into the real annual cost of keeping a boat in Los Cabos:

• Insurance: Mexican marine insurance for a mid-size sportfisher typically runs a few thousand dollars a year depending on hull value, and most marinas require proof of coverage before they'll hand you a slip contract.
• Maintenance and bottom cleaning: Warm Sea of Cortez water grows marine growth fast. Budget for regular diver bottom cleaning, more frequent than you'd need in cooler waters, plus standard engine service intervals.
• Crew or dockhand: Owners who aren't full-time residents almost always hire a local captain or dockhand to check on the boat, run the engines periodically, and handle it for charters or guest use when the owner is away.
• Hurricane season planning: Los Cabos sits in an active hurricane corridor roughly June through November. Marinas have storm protocols, but owners still need a plan — hauling out, additional lines, or relocating the boat during a named storm threat.

None of this is a reason to skip ownership if you genuinely plan to use the boat often. It's just the honest math I walk clients through before they commit, the same way I'd walk anyone through the real carrying costs of a second home.

Buying a Boat in Mexico as a Foreigner

Foreigners can buy and register boats in Mexico without restriction. The two paths are buying a boat already in Mexico with Mexican or transferred foreign registration, or importing your own boat from the US or elsewhere, which triggers the TIP process described above. Either way, work with a marine broker or attorney familiar with Banjercito paperwork — the registration and permit process has enough small procedural requirements that DIY attempts commonly stall at the counter over a missing document.

If fishing is the primary draw, pair your marina research with a real look at what's actually biting and when — my Cabo sportfishing guide breaks down the seasonal calendar for marlin, dorado, and tuna, which should factor into whether you want a boat sitting in a slip year-round or whether chartering seasonally makes more sense. And if entertaining guests matters as much as fishing, look at what a sunset cruise or boat tour operation in Cabo actually charges — it's a useful benchmark for what your own boat could offset in guest costs if you ever wanted to run occasional charters yourself.

Buying Waterfront With Realistic Boat Access

If a boat is part of your Cabo plan, work backward from marina access rather than forward from the prettiest ocean view. Marina Cabo San Lucas puts you closest to IGY and downtown. Puerto Los Cabos gives you the owner-discount pathway at its own marina with room to expand. Pedregal offers dramatic hillside views over the marina and downtown but no private slip of its own — you're still renting from IGY like everyone else. None of these guarantee you a slip the day you close; they just put you closer to the waitlist. If marina access is non-negotiable for you, tell me that before we start touring — it changes which properties are even worth your time.

For current slip availability and posted rates, check directly with IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas and Marina Puerto Los Cabos — rates and slip availability shift with demand and I'd rather send you to the source than quote you a number that's gone stale.

Frequently Asked Questions