V&A Waterfront’s New Quay 7 Marina to Boost Catamaran Exports

R230 million is going into a marina that could change the way Cape Town hands off big cats. The V&A Waterfront’s Quay 7 Superyacht Marina is due for completion in October 2026, and its real value for the catamaran trade may be in the quiet months, when finished boats need commissioning space, service support and a clean route to export.

The new facility will sit in front of the Cape Town EDITION hotel in the V&A Waterfront harbour precinct and will offer eight berths, made up of six stern-to berths and two beam-on berths. It is being built for vessels from about 30m to 90m, which places it squarely in the territory where superyachts and larger multihulls overlap. That makes Quay 7 more than another waterfront amenity, it gives Cape Town a purpose-built berth for high-value vessels that need to be prepared, checked and moved on efficiently.

That dual-purpose brief is what matters most for local builders. During peak season, the marina will take superyachts. In quieter months, it is intended to support commissioning and export staging for Cape Town’s catamaran manufacturers, including Robertson and Caine, Two Oceans Marine and Balance Catamarans. For a sector that already ships most of what it builds, the difference between a working berth and a waiting list can affect delivery timing, final outfitting and the handover experience for overseas buyers.

The timing fits a market that is already drawing serious traffic. Graham Wood said Cape Town welcomed 35 superyachts in the 2024/25 season, a sign that the city is pulling more of the global circuit south. The pitch from the V&A Waterfront is that Cape Town offers reliable marine services, technical expertise and cruising routes that competing ports cannot match. Quay 7, by design, turns that into infrastructure, not just branding.

For Cape Town’s catamaran cluster, the wider significance is hard to miss. Robertson and Caine says it is South Africa’s largest boat builder for export, the largest catamaran builder in the Southern Hemisphere and the third-largest globally. Industry coverage citing BlueCape puts Cape Town’s output at around 330 catamarans in the past year, most of them for export. Andre Blaine said the marina will require permanent staff and create demand for local service providers, reinforcing the harbour precinct as both a marine-industrial base and a handoff point for boats heading to owners around the world.

Quay 7 also forms part of the R20-billion Granger Bay precinct expansion, putting catamaran logistics, superyacht berthing and waterfront development into the same frame. For Cape Town, that could mean a stronger export pipeline and a firmer place on the global multihull map.