Boats for rent in Marsala

Sailing from Marsala towards the Egadi

All the boats on this page are based at Marsala Marina, in the harbour of the town at Sicily's western tip. It is a mixed fleet of mid-sized sailing yachts and catamarans, among them a boat offered with crew, mostly rented by the week.

Just north of the harbour lies the Stagnone, the largest lagoon in Sicily and a regional nature reserve since 1984. The water is 1–2 m deep and often no more than 50 cm, so it is no place for a keel yacht, and the island of Mozia, site of the ancient city of Motya, is best visited from land. The open sea leads west instead. Favignana, the largest of the Egadi, lies about 18 km off the coast between Marsala and Trapani, with Levanzo and Marettimo beyond; in 241 BC Rome won the last battle of the First Punic War among these islands. Our Egadi and western Sicily itinerary includes a variation that starts here.

The Egadi are a marine protected area divided into zones. Around the Faraglione of Favignana, zone B lets only residents motor or anchor within 500 m of the coast, and Marettimo's zone B admits only a limited number of authorised visiting boats each day. Most of Favignana and the east sides of Levanzo and Marettimo are zone C, where the rules are lighter.