To say that the 2020-2021 St. Maarten yachting season was an odd one would be an understatement. Yacht captains, owners, and guests who decided to get out and about spent much of their time cruising St. Maarten waters working to get into their favorite regional destination. Keeping up with constantly changing entry regulations allowed the St. Maarten maritime community the opportunity to show just how proactive and accommodating St. Maarten has become as a leading yachting destination. Captains, yacht management companies, and brokers were kept up to date on St. Maarten with regulatory announcements and new cruising plans, while marinas and yacht support service companies maintained the highest level of services and understanding to allow for flexibility to the constant changes.
Knowing the impact yachting has on the St. Maarten economy, IGY Marinas set the bar by providing on-going updates of COVID-19 regulations and entry requirements for St. Maarten in addition to supporting onsite testing for visiting yachts. This provided the St. Maarten maritime industry with the ability to manage expectations and a maintain daily reference points to an ever-changing environment.
As the 2020-2021 season draws to a close, the rest of the world is adapting to the new changes the pandemic has brought upon us. Yacht Club at Isle de Sol in St. Maarten maintains a positive outlook for the 2021-2022 Caribbean yachting season. With the completion of an exciting renovation of the marina building and the restaurant area, now occupied by Navy Beach, the expectation is to see a revival bigger than that of the 2018-2019 season after St. Maarten was affected by two historical storms in September 2017.