From the 2027 summer season, yachts can no longer drop anchor anywhere in Monaco’s waters. The Prince’s Government announced on 6 October 2026 that a fixed mooring zone with nine buoys is being built in Monaco Bay, and that anchoring outside it will be banned all year round. Work started on 7 October and must finish by 31 March 2027.
What this means for your charter
If your yacht wants to sit off Monaco for the Grand Prix, the Yacht Show or a summer evening, she will tie to a buoy or she will not stay. There are nine buoys for the whole Principality:
- four for yachts up to 50 m (164 ft)
- three for yachts up to 70 m (230 ft)
- two for yachts up to 90 m (295 ft)
Yachts over 90 m, and anyone who does not get a buoy, moor in a French port or anchor in French waters and come in by tender. Port Hercule and the port at Fontvieille are unchanged. The ports company SEPM will run the buoys; prices and booking rules have not been published yet.
What exactly did Monaco decide?
The government notice says the mooring zone sits in 45 to 80 m of water, on the spot that has served as the traditional anchorage during the Principality’s big events. Each buoy is held by an eco-designed anchor block instead of a chain dragging over the seabed. The official wording on the ban: “Anchoring outside the designated area will be prohibited throughout the year in all waters under Monegasque sovereignty.” Special arrangements may be made during major maritime events.
The reason is the seabed. Repeated anchoring by large yachts tears up the bottom, and Monaco has been tightening its rules for years: the Larvotto marine reserve is already closed to navigation and anchoring, and French waters next door already ban anchoring on posidonia seagrass.
Our take
For most clients this changes little. A week on the Riviera is spent in Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Tropez and the islands, and Monaco is a day or a dinner. The yachts that feel it are the ones that like to sit off the Principality for a week in May. With nine buoys for the whole coast, we would expect them to be allocated well ahead of the Grand Prix, so a Grand Prix charter for 2027 should be booked on the basis of a berth in port, or a buoy request placed the day SEPM opens bookings.
What to do next
- See our Monaco yacht charter page for berths and the yachts that work from Port Hercule
- Planning May? Read yachts for the Monaco Grand Prix
- The rules in French waters are on our anchoring and posidonia page
Last updated: October 2026. We will add buoy prices and the booking route when SEPM publishes them.
iMessage
WhatsApp
