The Eastern Caribbean's largest fuel tank dedicated to a marina has delivered 30,000 gallons of fuel to its first customer; a 66-metre motor yacht. It’s the largest bunkering session for a yacht ever in St Kitts, after the yacht headed directly to The Marina at Christophe Harbour from its Atlantic crossing.

The 66-metre motor yacht, a Dutch-made Feadship, arrived in Christophe Harbour fresh from its Atlantic crossing and has been enjoying the early season in the Eastern Caribbean hub. Christophe Harbour's duty-free fuel costs about 10 cents less per US gallon than the local average, and the new fuel farm adds an important facility to the regional superyacht infrastructure. The yacht took on 30,000 gallons, with bunkering taking only about four hours thanks to the efficient state-of-the-art fueling system.

The 18-crew vessel arrived on Saturday 5 November, and St Kitts’ Minister of Tourism, Lindsay Grant, representatives from the Department of Maritime Affairs, Christophe Harbour Director of Yachting, Aeneas Hollins, and the marina team were on hand to mark the bunkering occasion.

“Today marks a paradigm shift, in terms of the yachting industry,” said Grant to the assembled audience. “Not only for St Kitts and Nevis, but for the Eastern Caribbean. What you’ve done here will extend our season, which is fantastic not only for the yachts which will arrive here in terms of numbers, but fantastic in terms of the economic benefits and spin offs that we are going to get.”

Christophe Harbour is looking forward to a successful season, with the proliferation of services proving a draw for yachts, and the Feadship reporting it came specifically to discover the marina and St Kitts. Since this initial fueling, several other vessels in transit to Antigua have taken advantage of fueling, and the marina has several bookings for additional boats making the Atlantic crossing in the coming weeks.

The 66-metre and her crew have enjoyed a variety of these services, including VIP clearance, use of the YU Lounge for guest arrivals, quality provisioning, car rental, restaurant booking, tours, flowers, helicopter operations and many of the other services on offer.

The Marina at Christophe Harbour is home to the largest fuel farm facility dedicated to a marina in the Eastern Caribbean with an onsite tank capacity of 48,000 US gallons. This enables the marina to offer 40,000 US gallons per day of in-slip fuelling for vessels, with up to 125 gallons per minute of Sol-supplied, ultra-low sulphur diesel.

Dedicated to providing a comprehensive charter base to visiting yachts, the Marina team was pleased to work closely with both the Ministry of National Security and Immigration Department to process visas and crew entry quickly and efficiently. Specialty training has been provided to the marina team, which includes five new dockhands, covering marina management, fueling, spill-response, fire, first aid and security (ISPS). They have also worked closely with the Department of Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation Authority.