Story and Photos by Elaine Lembo
2025 Update: Dates announced for the 2025 Martinique Boat Show, October 17 – 19, 2025
A sip of the warm, smooth, and spicy Rhum Agricole named Clément L’Elixir had just settled in my belly, a pleasant, soft landing like an anchor snuggling into the sand of a crystal-clear harbor. On the French windward island of Martinique, a tour of Habitation Clément — and rum tasting — means sailing just as much as busted heads and broken rigging do.
I’ve no doubt that gaining a well-rounded view of all the spectacular features of Madinina, “Island of Flowers,” as the Caribs called it, was the goal of my gracious hosts as they wined and dined me on a multi-day tour of highlights both nautical and landlubberly.
Called the Cluster Maritime Martinique (CMM), this association was created in 2013 by professionals to unite all sectors of the island marine industry. From fabrication to services, the CMM is composed of companies of all sizes and types (www.cluster-maritime-martinique.org/membres-du-cmm). The group, which has merged with the Martinique Yachting Association (MYA), strives to unite marine businesses spread throughout the large (43 miles long 19 miles wide) island.
“An industry is best defended by its members, and once regrouped, they project a voice that the authorities consider a valid representation of the industry,” said Douglas Rapier, MYA president, adding, “it is the foundation of what both MYA & CMM achieved and what their continuation in the form of the CMM intends to achieve.”
Indeed, the CMM is intent on showing sailors whose hailing ports lie beyond its borders that it’s taking the lead in growing the island’s marine sector on a regional and global level. It may not compete with the export of agricultural products like bananas and sugar, of which rum is a part, but marine products and services fall neatly within the second leading economic category, tourism and the service industry.
“After some 10 years of major effort, it’s increasingly becoming achievable,” Rapier said. “It just requires persistent focus and effective action.” As progress, he cites government’s official recognition of Martinique’s marine sector, reduction in a variety of taxes that compelled mariners to take business to other islands, as well as the recent relocation to the island of the finish of the famous doublehanded biennial race, the Transat Jacques Vabre.
Another highly visible centerpiece of this multifaceted mission is the CMM’s showcase product, the three-year-old Martinique boat show, held at Marina of Etang Z’Abricots, Fort-de-France. While the Caribbean basin in general is renown as a leading global chartering, cruising (power and sail) and racing destination, with Martinique earning recognition for its outstanding supporting technical role in the maintenance of French-constructed sailboat models, as well as service to others, particularly multihulls, there’s a big disconnect.
“It is estimated that Martinique only captures 10 percent of the flow of boats that sail in the Caribbean,” the 2022 CMM report states, adding that this presents an opportunity for “development … and attracting a wider public from the Caribbean, France, Europe and North America.” That low percentage is calculated by the Institut d’Émission des Départements d’Outre-Mer (IEDOM), a subsidiary of the Banque of France charged with oversight of economic and monetary strategies for the French Overseas Territories, which in the Caribbean includes Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Barth’s, and St. Martin.
Boat Show Ambitions
So it was that I found myself invited to the island in early June 2023. The hard-working organizers of the boat show, who’d at the eleventh hour pushed the date back a month so as not to compete for attendees with the popular St. Lucia Jazz Festival in May, kept me on a jam-packed daily itinerary to help them spread the word about the show as a platform for a broad and deep range of services available for sailors’ every need and want.
It was also their opportunity to share the island’s agendas around sustainability and the preservation of marine ecosystems in the face of ocean acidification and warming, reduced biodiversity, rising sea levels, anchoring impacts, and the presence of plastic waste.
Bulking up that 10 percent yacht traffic statistic and raising the profile and participation in the boat show so it strengthens financially and gains regional and international status is an ambitious effort. To Rapier’s summary of a decade of CMM victories, show organizers point to Martinique’s central location in the Caribbean islands chain, the technical expertise of its workers, as well as the strength of its youth training programs, as reasons they ultimately expect to accomplish their goal.
Daily from June 1–4, as I strolled the grounds — 5,000 square meters of exhibition space on land, 200 linear meters of exhibition space afloat — I took in everything from a Volvo Penta engine dealership to rigid inflatables, water toys and chandlery goods; from contemporary catamaran models for charter to artisan soap makers and bimini installers.
Over a Saturday lunch that included a few of the island’s signature local provisions—Pork Colombo and Bière Lorraine — I also had a chance to catch up with key show staff, including chief organizer Eric Vasse, and chief administrator Maryse Pagnano.
The show is the manifestation of the CMM goal to gather all of Martinique’s diverse nautical activities, whether power or sail and watersports, in one location, Vasse said. “Another goal with this show,” Vasse added, “is to have a show within a show. The show itself, and within it, an international show for buying and selling catamarans.”
This would logically build upon Martinique’s reputation as a hub for all aspects of multihull sailing and maintenance. “We are a top spot globally for catamarans,” Pagnano said, “and it’s time to build on this.”
While Vasse, also a Nautitech catamaran dealer, is a veteran participant in the global boat show circuit, Pagnano focuses her efforts on enticing nautical businesses from throughout the region to participate in the Martinique show. “As we bring in more of the marine industry from other islands, people will pay attention and join in,” she said.
That’s the plan, though obstacles inevitably creep up: political clashes in various island municipalities over the direction of the nautical sector, the aforementioned jazz festival (whose leading audience share comes from Martinique), and last but not least, the pandemic, which shut down the show for two years immediately after its debut in 2019.
“This year felt like starting all over again,” Pagnano said. Nonetheless, the 2022 show’s rebound in attendance, a spike of 40 percent over 2019, with an exhibitor increase of 35%, fueled optimism, and organizers anticipate that with the 2023 show, its contract will be renewed for the next four years.
Growth in a Blue Economy
Aside from ongoing support from the government and private sectors, promotion of the boat show and the blue economy also comes from initiatives by individual marine industry players and CMM members, particularly from La Marina du Marin and its next-door neighbor, Carenantilles shipyard.
While about 30 anchorages are available to sailors making landfall at Martinique, key harbors with organized mooring fields include Marin, Fort de France at Etang Z’Abricots, and at Les Anses d’Arlet.
As one of the Caribbean’s largest marinas, and Martinique’s biggest marina, with an array of yacht services and technicians, du Marin, while by no means the only place to get excellent boat work done on the island, holds a position of high visibility. It’s also the base of 12 charter companies and a port of entry.
A stone’s throw or dinghy ride away is Carenantilles, offering yacht owners complete marine refit services that comply with European Union environmental standards. Included among sought-after activities are travel lifts with 80- and 440-ton haulout capacity, able to lift boats with 28-foot-plus beams out of the water. The day I visited, a monohull was slung in the 80-ton travelift, while a cat straddled the 440-ton lift.
Given the steady global growth of the multihull segment over the decades, with French builders Fountaine Pajot as well as Lagoon, which is part of Group Beneteau, the dominant brands, it follows that multihulls are a focus of the island’s marine industry.
“Martinique is the first place in the world where catamarans gather,” Simon Jean-Joseph, du Marin managing director, told me, adding “it’s important to have the boat show, because people from the United States and all over the world come to buy multihulls here, and I think there’s an opportunity for us not only to sell used boats but also show our knowledge and our maintenance expertise. Our marinas, our facilities, and our knowledge about boats make our island attractive.
The 2024 Martinique Boat Show runs from May 30 to June 2. www.martinique-boat-show.fr
“We are lucky to be a part of France and Europe in the Caribbean,” he said. “It brings attractive incentives to us, as well as security and stability. We are a gorgeous island, but we still need to work hard to keep it safe, clean, and do our best to continue to attract people here.”
The marina has placed high priority and visibility on environmental preservation. Its buildings are powered via solar panels, which also supply electricity to yachts at the docks. Its pumpout boat, M/V Siyack, collects oil, black and gray water from boats, and supplies fresh water. Recycling is mandatory. The marina also abides by the European Union sustainability initiative and hosts an artificial nursery to promote marine species biodiversity.
A major focus of the marina and its subsidiary, Société Antillaise d’Exploitation de Ports de Plaisance (SAEPP), are mooring field upgrade projects intended to protect boat owners and the environment. These include installation of 250 moorings in Marin’s harbor and additional moorings at Les Anses d’Arlet, planned for completion by 2025.
At St. Pierre, another port of entry in the northwest corner of Martinique, SAEPP plans include installation of 130 moorings in three zones by December 2023. Boats will be required to use their holding tanks and can obtain free pumpouts. Other services include online clearing in, wifi, dinghy dockage, water taxi, and garbage collection. The goal is to entice visiting sailors and liveaboards with services that will entice them away from anchoring in vulnerable and protected areas.
In St. Pierre, the protected area includes the site of shipwrecks left behind by the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelée volcano. The tragedy is superbly documented at the Musée Frank A. Perret, which I visited on the Sunday morning of the boat show. This visitor was overwhelmed by the collection’s 432 components, which include grains of rice, a loaf of bread, coffee beans, pasta, including countless everyday business and personal items — clumps of scissors, nails, combs and other toiletry items, as well as pottery.
“Overall, our attempt is to get organized,” Christian Rapha, the mayor of St. Pierre, told me as he escorted me through town. “We want to provide the needed water and waste services to sailors, as well as welcome others.”
The town, known as the Paris of the Caribbean until the horrific 1902 eruption, has enjoyed a long rebound as a cultural and tourist attraction. Rapha said that plans are under way to open a duty free port in time for the arrival of an expected 31 visits from Club Med 2 over winter 2024. The five-masted schooner has 184 cabins, a crew of 200, and can accommodate nearly 400 guests.
Our jaunt included brief stops at the remains of the theatre and the prison, as well as to the waterfront market, which bustled with activity and produce. And no visit around any town on this island is complete without a stop at a distillery. We next drove to the grounds of the Depaz distillery, nestled at the foot of Mount Pelée. I eagerly stepped out of the car to have my photograph taken against the backdrop of its peak. “It’s a rare occurrence to see it without cloud cover,” Rapha said, “and very special.”
Of course, as was my sip of Rhum Agricole, among countless special, memorable delights awaiting any sailor fortunate enough to make landfall in Martinique.
