Dubai Harbour Marinas becomes first in the world to receive three simultaneous accreditations from The Yacht Harbour Association

• Amongst the prestigious awards includes the coveted Gold Anchor, a recognition awarded to select marinas around the world for raising standards and providing customer-centric services

February 14, 2024

Dubai Harbour is the proud recipient of three prestigious accreditations from The Yacht Harbour Association, including the coveted Gold Anchor award – a credible measure of marina quality; alongside renowned titles for Clean Marinas and Super Yacht Ready, a first in the region. The region’s largest marina achieved an unprecedented feat of securing all three accreditations, not only on its very first try, but simultaneously, marking a world-first achievement under The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA) and demonstrating the high standards of marina excellence at Dubai Harbour.

The global marina accreditations awarded by The Yacht Harbour Association have been a trusted industry evaluation, based upon the belief that the marina industry needs a customer-centric focus for marina businesses and recreational boating to grow and prosper. To arrive at the accreditation, a marina is evaluated against six key evaluation categories including Ambiance, Customer Service and Environmental, amongst others.

The prestigious flags of recognition were presented by Jon White, General Manager of The Yacht Harbour Association to Dubai Harbour in a special ceremony.

“When we first conceptualised Dubai Harbour years ago, our aim was to design and deliver a seafront residential district that rekindled Dubai’s connection to the sea and acted as a gateway for extraordinary maritime lifestyle and journeys. With world-class facilities and services, Dubai Harbour Marinas is providing a full home port solution enabling local and international boat owners, passengers and crew to enjoy Dubai’s spectacular cruising grounds.  We would like to thank The Yacht Harbour Association for this recognition and our Dubai Harbour Marinas teams for their unwavering commitment to yachting excellence rewarded with these three prestigious accreditations,” said Abdulla Binhabtoor, Chief Portfolio Management Officer at Shamal Holding, Owner and Curator of Dubai Harbour.

Jon White, General Manager of The Yacht Harbour Association added; “The 5 Gold Anchor, Superyacht Ready and Clean Marina awards that I am pleased to have presented to the Dubai Harbour Marinas team, are designed to advise and educate with the objective of raising standards within the marina industry and assisting boaters in their choice of marina.

To achieve any one of these accreditations represents a significant challenge; to be awarded all three at once is highly impressive. This is a great credit to the Dubai Harbour Marinas team who are strong advocates of such accreditations and long-standing Certified Marina Managers, spearheaded by Director – Marinas Wayne Shepherd (CMM). My congratulations go to all who contributed to this excellent achievement”.

 Dubai Harbour is the region’s largest marina, featuring close to 700 berths that can accommodate yachts up to 160m in length, in addition to a dedicated superyacht marina. Offering a fuelling station capable of taking vessels up to 50m, as well as providing guests and crew with a full home port solution in one of the world’s most spectacular cruising grounds, Dubai Harbour Marinas enables direct access to the open waters of the Arabian Gulf with ample water depths and no air draught limits.

As part of its commitment to offering a premier and multifaceted seafront experience, Dubai Harbour is welcoming a new era of green innovation, recently announcing the introduction of the UAE’s first ever floating waste collector called PixieDrone. Dubai Harbour also has a dedicated sustainability committee, ‘Seaguardians’, who ensure sustainable practices are followed across all operations, educating boat owners on environmentally-friendly initiatives and driving better ESG awareness for the industry.

Later this month, Dubai Harbour will host the Dubai International Boat Show for the third consecutive year, taking place from 28th February – 3rd March 2024.