Runaway Bay Marina

About the marina

Occupying a broad basin off Bayview Street at Hollywell, Runaway Bay Marina sits directly on the Gold Coast Broadwater, facing the southern tip of South Stradbroke Island with the Seaway entrance only about two nautical miles to the east. That geography shapes everything about the place: crews can be off the marina and into open Broadwater within minutes, without the six-knot river crawl that slows boats based up the Coomera or Nerang systems. The marina holds 195 wet berths for vessels from 8 to 30 metres and backs them with one of the larger dry-storage operations in south-east Queensland, roughly 260 racked spaces for trailerable craft. It went through a staged rebuild with Bellingham Marine between 2007 and 2009 in which the operator deliberately traded berth count for wider pens and more open manoeuvring water, a decision that still shows in the roomy fairways. The crowd is mixed: trailer-boat fishos using the seven-day forklift launch, families with mid-size cruisers, a noticeable liveaboard contingent drawn by the tolerant overnight policy, and visiting yachts pausing before or after a Seaway crossing. A strip of cafes, restaurants and bars along the boardwalk, including Klein's Coffee, Bar and Grill overlooking the pens, gives the marina a small dining precinct feel rather than a purely industrial one. Add the fuel jetty on the Broadwater edge, the boat sales and service tenants, and a 35-tonne travel lift, and Runaway Bay reads as the most complete general-purpose marina on the northern Gold Coast, run by staff who are themselves regular boaters.

Berthing & shoreside services

Berthing at Runaway Bay spans 8 to 30 metres across 195 floating concrete pens, with single or three-phase shore power and water at the berth, and personal access codes controlling entry to both the pens and the shore amenities. Casual berthing is welcome and berth holders may sleep aboard for a night or two at no extra charge, which suits cruisers waiting on a Seaway weather window. Off-street parking beside the marina is free for berth holders, and dock trolleys line the boardwalk. The dry-storage building racks boats to about 10 metres and runs a forklift launch-and-retrieve service seven days a week, with staff able to have a boat in the water on roughly an hour's notice; on return, the boat goes onto a wash bay for a rinse and engine flush before racking. The shipyard operates a 35-tonne Marine Travelift that hauls vessels to 16 metres overall, handling antifouling, anode replacement and general repairs; owners can work on their own boats, use the yard's trades or bring in insured contractors. On-site marine businesses cover outboard and inboard mechanics, marine electrics, covers and bimini work, detailing and cleaning, and staff will move a boat to the service area on request. A 60-metre fuel jetty on the Broadwater side sells fuel along with bait, ice and tackle, and a sewage pump-out serves berth holders. Security runs 24 hours with CCTV coverage and guards on site. Food and drink options step straight off the boardwalk: Klein's Coffee, Bar and Grill plus other dine-in and takeaway restaurants and bars, and boat sales brokers operate from the complex. Shower and laundry facilities serve the liveaboard and visiting population.

Local context in YouSail

This is directory context, not navigation advice. Check current charts, notices and official boating resources before passage.

The approach could hardly be simpler: the marina fronts the main Broadwater channel south of the tip of South Stradbroke Island, so there is no bar to cross, no bridge to duck and generous water for anything that fits a 30-metre pen. The Gold Coast Seaway, with its stabilised training walls, lies about two nautical miles east, making this one of the quickest ocean exits of any Queensland marina; cruisers bound for Moreton Bay or the Wide Bay run often stage here. Inside the Broadwater, the classic destinations fan out around the marina: Tipplers and the anchorage off South Stradbroke's western beach, Wavebreak Island, the Bedrooms, and the Jumpinpin channel to the north for those who know the tides. The Broadwater's southern shallows demand attention to the marked channels at low water, but the reach off Runaway Bay is deep and well lit. On shore, the Runaway Bay shopping centre a short canal trip away takes boats at its own pontoons, handy for a supermarket run, and the suburb's strip of takeaway shops and the Runaway Bay tavern cover everything else. The marina's liveaboard community is long-established and tolerated rather than merely permitted, which gives the docks a settled, watchful character. The one caution is weather exposure: in a hard south-easterly the Broadwater chops up quickly, and skippers returning through the Seaway on an ebb against breeze should time the tide. Otherwise this is an all-weather, all-tide base, and it shows in the number of Brisbane and hinterland owners who keep their boats here year-round rather than towing them home.