Here’s some good news for anyone cruising up or down Long Island Sound this year. The new Steelpointe Harbor Marina, with 200 slips on floating concrete docks, is open in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Steelpointe offers a new overnight (or longer) destination for anyone heading to or from New York, Mystic, Newport, the islands or farther Down East, and it has all the amenities to make a visit comfortable.
The driving force behind Steelpointe is its location. It’s part of a $1 billion, 55-acre waterfront development in Bridgeport. A super-sized Bass Pro Shop opened there in 2016, and now there’s a Starbucks, Chipotle and T-Mobile. The Bass Pro Shop store also has a bowling alley and Uncle Buck’s Fish Bowl and Grill. A new waterfront restaurant, The Boca Oyster Bar just opened, with a large indoor space and an outdoor patio.
The development area is just off Exit 28 of I-95, one of the most heavily travelled major highways in the United States. It’s about 60 miles from Manhattan; the Bridgeport Metro North train station is 1.3 miles away. And the Bridgeport ferry, connecting to Port Jefferson across Long Island Sound, is nearby.
The marina can handle boats up to 300 feet. The approach depth is 12 feet at mean low water, and there are no bridges to worry about coming in from the Sound. It has transient and seasonal slips, with 30-, 50- and 100-amp service, free Wi-Fi, in-slip pump-out facilities and a fuel dock with gas and diesel. There are also air-conditioned heads with showers and laundry facilities.
If you need repairs, the old Derecktor Shipyard, now called Bridgeport Boatworks, is across the harbor. It has 75- and 200-ton Travelifts as well as a paint shop and other facilities to work on large yachts.
The development is being led by Bob Christoph, of Bridgeport Landing Development, who once was part of a group that owned the Bahia Mar marina in Fort Lauderdale. He plans to promote Steelpointe with boat shows and owners’ rendezvous in the next year or so. He also plans to build waterfront apartments there, and perhaps even a casino in the future. Read more:
