Buenos Aires - Docking
Both Yacht Club Argentino and Yacht Club Puerto Madero have marinas most conveniently located to visit the Argentinian capital. Visitors are offered one week’s free docking at YC Argentina, with the first night free at YC Puerto Madero. Note, if you use the one week free offer at the headquarters of the city, you cannot use it at the YC headquarters north or Mar Del Plata.
The bridge to Puerto Madero opens every two hours, from 07:00 to 23:00, for entering and exiting boats, if requested at least 30 minutes in advance. The request can be made to marina personnel before exiting, or via VHF Channel 71 when returning. All yachts departing Puerto Madero must sign a log book at the marina office (on the dock), stating where you are going. This rule is for all boats, whether local or foreign flagged.
Note: It is not advisable to use your watermaker in Río de La Plata. There is too much sediment here and the river algae can cause serious damage.
The most welcoming Club for foreign boats is Club de Veleros Barlovento. It offers a lot of services and is located in the middle of a nautical area, so is ideal for parts and labour. It does require a local insurance policy but is cheaper than all the other clubs or marinas.
There are good facilities available and also a good range of marine supplies in Buenos Aires.
Catamaran owners may find beam an issue in the marinas here. It’s worth contacting them in advance to check options.
Yacht Club Argentino San Fernando has excellent facilities, however, it is a private club and limited to visitors, plus it is 32 km (20 miles) up-river from the capital. There is a boatyard offering an excellent range of services and other marinas in this same area.
North Buenos Aires has a large and very friendly sailing community. Club Nautico San Isidro offers a free marina, travelift and services for fibreglass, steel and wooden boats. Club Nautico Sudeste no longer receives foreign boats.
The trip to Rio Lujan, where the majority of the yachts are kept, can be achieved in two ways: via the canal, Emilio Mitre then canals Honda leading to canal de Vinculacion which ends at Rio Lujan; or the coastal passage. This can be very shallow depending on tides, wind and the river.
In the area San Isidro, San Martine and San Fernando there are dozens of clubs and thousands of boats and then there is the Tigre area as well. Here it is possible to organize a berth by calling into each club as you move up the river or best anchor on the Island side of the channel and take the dinghy, the road system is such that it is very complex to do this by road.
Last updated: December 2016.
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We stayed in YCA (Darsena Norte) in November 2019. It is advisable to e-mail ahead of time, indicating your ETA and desired length of stay. We were offered two nights free, thereafter it was about 50 USD per day for our 14m boat.
Puerto Madero has similar prices per day, but a reasonable discount per week. Note that bridge times are different during the weekend.
We also informed about staying (for free) at San Isidro, but did not get a reply to our request, other than that they would consider it.
Repair facilities, chandleries and sailmakers are almost all in the North, which you can reach by train if you are staying at YCA or Puerto Madero.
Clearing in: immigration (at the cruise terminal, avoid walking there after dark), prefectura (at PM if you are staying there / at prefectura across the street from immigration if you are at YCA – although you may want to try at PM, as it is closer) and then aduana (at Buquebus terminal). At the prefectura we were told to go to aduana first, but there they insisted we see prefectura first (so insist at the prefectura). At aduana you should get clearance for the same amount of time as your personal visa. Insist if they give you less time. Also, upon checking out aduana told us to clear out with them as well, even though we were going to stay in Argentina. The next day, the head of aduana confirmed that we didn’t have to clear out the vessel. Our friend Omar (wetdoc) was very helpful in getting all things organised (and so much more).