Cruising Savannah, Georgia

Paul Goedtel says that when he was growing up, Georgia was a place most people drove through. What he sees today is different. From his vantage point as general manager of Safe Harbor Savannah Yacht Center, the city has grown into a great waypoint for yachtsmen and crew alike.

“There’s good restaurants, festival activity—it’s kind of like New Orleans, but smaller, cleaner and more manageable,” Goedtel says. “It’s Southern charm. It’s easy to manage. It’s not a rat-race place. Its nickname is ‘Slowvannah.’”

Safe Harbor’s setup can take yachts 200 feet and much larger, mostly for service but also for transient dockage if space is available. It’s not only the owners he hears talking about Savannah having interesting offerings. The crew, too, seem intrigued.

“The crew that come here get out of South Florida to a quaint Southern town, and they have a good time with it,” he says. “River Street downtown, there’s a couple blocks where you can walk with open containers. There’s lots of shops and food. There’s music.”

He’s also seeing a sort of migration northward within the superyacht community, especially among captains who face challenges in the crowded Southeast Florida service centers and marinas. “We hear from captains who are tired of the rat race down south,” he says. “They come up here and get the same service. And there’s less trouble that the crew can get into up here.”

His favorite spots to grab a bite include the Chart House—especially for locally caught shrimp—and The Grey, which is built inside a 1930s art deco Greyhound Bus Terminal. His top spot for live music is Victory North, he says: “It’s a really intimate venue that gets some pretty good acts. And our minor-league hockey team, the Ghost Pirates, we get season tickets to that and the crew eat them up.”

Go Bananas

One of Savannah’s best fun-for-all-ages activities is a day at the ballpark watching the Savannah Bananas in action. They play banana ball, which involves on-field theatrics such as backflips, dance routines and generally entertaining antics that involve hitting and catching balls. The two-hour time limit also works wonders for the littlest fans.

Safe Harbor Savannah Yacht Center

Maximum beam here is 72 feet, which makes this facility an option for most larger yachts. There’s 24-hour gated security, along with a fitness center for guests and crew to use.

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