Hull Cleaning in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Boat care on the water in Fort Lauderdale

The New River is called the heart of Fort Lauderdale, connecting the Everglades to the Atlantic and the Intracoastal through downtown, and it's one small piece of roughly 300 miles of navigable inland waterway across greater Fort Lauderdale, over 100 marinas and an estimated 50,000-plus registered yachts call the area home, which is why it's routinely called the yachting capital of the world. Port Everglades, at the city's south end, adds cruise-ship traffic on top of the recreational boats. Lauderdale Marina sits on the Intracoastal, and the city itself manages New River/Downtown docking.

In 2025, FWC approved a year-round slow-speed, minimum-wake zone on the Intracoastal between the Oakland Park Boulevard and Sunrise Boulevard bridges, adjacent to Lauderdale Beach, replacing a seasonal manatee zone to cut collision risk in a stretch of water that carries a lot of boat traffic, worth knowing before you plan a route through there. Every winter, the Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade runs up to 100 vessels down the waterway, billed as the world's largest boat parade.

The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show runs October 28 through November 1, 2026, spread across six waterfront locations: the Broward County Convention Center, Bahia Mar Yachting Center, Hall of Fame Marina, Las Olas Marina, Pier Sixty-Six Marina and the Superyacht Village at Pier Sixty-Six South. It's billed as the largest in-water boat show in the world, and for one week every fall several of the city's working marinas turn into show floor instead of slip space.

The marine industry behind that show runs year-round: a trade group estimate puts Broward County's marine-industry economic impact at $9.9 billion and about 121,000 jobs, with roughly 45,000 boats registered in the county alone. The SE 17th Street Causeway bridge, at 55 feet, is the tallest span on Fort Lauderdale's stretch of the Intracoastal, tall enough that most boats clear it without waiting, unlike the lower bascule bridges at Las Olas Boulevard (31 feet) and Oakland Park Boulevard (22 feet).

Water conditions: FWC's year-round slow-speed, minimum-wake zone on the ICW between the Oakland Park Blvd and Sunrise Blvd bridges (adjacent to Lauderdale Beach) replaced a seasonal manatee zone in 2025 to cut collision risk from vessel-traffic congestion.

• the New River
• the Intracoastal Waterway
• Port Everglades