Windmill Harbour Marina, Hilton Head Island

Windmill Harbour Marina is the harbour at the centre of the gated Windmill Harbour community, on the north end of Hilton Head Island. It is a basin of about 15 acres, closed off from the Intracoastal Waterway by a lock, so the water inside sits at a steady depth of about eight feet with no tide and no current. The marina calls it one of only three private locked harbours on the East Coast; Wexford Plantation, farther down the island, has another. You will also see it spelled the American way, Windmill Harbor Marina.

Its 258 slips, up to 70 feet long, are owned one by one by their owners, who make up the marina owners association that runs the harbour and the lock. Many are rented out through the harbourmaster’s office, and the marina is open to residents and non-residents alike: you don’t have to live in Windmill Harbour to keep a boat here, or to own a slip.

Getting Through the Lock

The lock is 19 feet wide, and the marina’s staff run it every day from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., or 7 p.m. while daylight saving time is on. Call the harbourmaster on VHF channel 14 before you come in or go out. Slip owners and renters who want to use it after hours can buy an electronic key fob from the office and are shown how to work the lock themselves, which takes a few minutes to learn.

The lock is why boaters like this harbour. With no tide rising and falling, boats stay level with the docks, sit out storms in still water, and there is so little growth on hulls that most owners have a diver clean the bottom only two or three times a year.

Transient Dockage

Transient boaters passing on the waterway are welcome, and the staff talk first-timers through the lock. Call the harbourmaster on VHF 14 or at (843) 681-9235, or book a night through Dockwa; nightly rates go by the foot, with shore power by the day. If you belong to a yacht club with reciprocal privileges, ask the South Carolina Yacht Club for a guest membership so you can eat there.

Renting a Slip by the Month

The harbourmaster rents out most of the slips whose owners want them rented, on a month-to-month basis. Rates go by the length of the slip your boat needs: on the marina’s 2026 rate card, a lease of one to six months runs from $580 a month for a 25-foot slip to $1,800 for a 70-foot one, and a longer lease of six to twelve months is a little cheaper. Power is extra. Renters get a pass for the Windmill Harbour gate and can use the harbour around the clock.

A few rules to know. The boat, measured from its bow or bowsprit to its outboard or swim platform, can’t be longer than the slip, and two boats sharing a slip have to fit within its length together. Living aboard is limited to 14 nights a month, so the marina has no full-time live-aboards.

Windmill Harbour Boat Slips for Sale

Each slip is real estate, deeded like a condominium, and the marina office doesn’t sell them: they are listed by local agents or sold by their owners. Our Windmill Harbour homes for sale page links to the current listings, which include the slips for sale. You don’t have to own a home in the community to buy one, and an owner can use the slip or have the marina rent it out, with the marina owners association keeping 25 percent of that rent to help cover the harbour’s costs.

Owning a slip comes with three bills. On the marina’s 2026 sheet, dues to the marina owners association are $3,508 a year for a slip of 30 to 40 feet and $4,677 for 45 feet and up; the Windmill Harbour property owners association charges $820 a year for security and roads; and Beaufort County property tax runs roughly half a percent to one percent of the slip’s value. Electricity is a flat monthly charge because the docks share meters, and water is included on most of them. A buyer also pays the property owners association an $820 transfer fee.

Marina Services

The marina sells gasoline and diesel and has a pump-out, free wifi, laundry, several sets of restrooms and showers, and use of the community pool for slip holders. The harbourmaster’s office keeps a list of local mechanics, electronics and canvas people, and cleaners, who work on boats in their slips.

Boating from Windmill Harbour

Outside the lock is Calibogue Sound, deep and sheltered, with creeks for anchoring nearby and fishing grounds offshore. The harbour is home to a fleet of Harbor 20 sailboats that race every week, and boats from here take part in regattas such as the Calibogue Cup, the Harbour Town Cup and the Ocean Challenge. The Hilton Head Island Boat Show has been held at the marina in May, with boats in the water and on trailers. For the rest of the island’s marinas, ramps and charters, see our Hilton Head boating guide, and for the island’s best-known harbour, Harbour Town Marina.

Finding the Marina

By water, the marina is at mile marker 558 on the Intracoastal Waterway, about half a mile south of the Pinckney Island bridge, between channel markers 27 and 29. By car, take US 278 toward Hilton Head Island; the Windmill Harbour gate is on your right shortly after the bridges. Tell the gate you are going to the marina, turn left onto Harbour Passage and follow it to the end, to 161 Harbour Passage. The marina’s own website has its rates, forms and contacts.