Boating in New Jersey: Barnegat Bay, the Shore and the Canyons
Of the roughly 190 boats and yachts for sale by owner in New Jersey on YachtBazar today, the
median asking price is $25,000. Fishing boats are the second-largest type
behind general powerboats — 33 of the by-owner listings we classified by title keyword, ahead
of sailboats (21) — and that is before counting the nine more listed specifically as center
consoles. The most-listed makes tell the same story: Sea Hunt and Grady-White, both
saltwater-fishing brands, sit alongside Sea Ray and Cobalt at the top of the list.
The listing map points straight at Barnegat Bay. Four of the state's five busiest listing
areas — Bayville, Manahawkin, Brick and Barnegat — sit on Ocean County's bay shore, where the
barrier beaches of Island Beach and Long Beach Island wall off miles of shallow, protected
water suited to bay boats, pontoons and smaller cruisers. From there the New Jersey
Intracoastal Waterway runs inside the barrier islands south to Cape May, so a bay-kept boat
can cover most of the southern shore without going outside. When it does go outside — through
Manasquan, Barnegat, Absecon or Cape May inlets — it is on the open Atlantic, and the long
runs out to the offshore canyons, Hudson Canyon the best known, are what the Shore's
sportfishing fleet is built for. North of the Shore, Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook put boats
within sight of New York Harbor; inland, the Delaware River and Lake Hopatcong, the state's
largest lake, carry the freshwater side of the market.
Bayville, Manahawkin, Brick, the wider Jersey Shore region and Barnegat carry the most
listings statewide. See the by-owner fishing
boats for sale in New Jersey, boats
priced $25,000 to $50,000 in New
Jersey — the band the state's median asking price falls into — or
New Jersey boat slips & docks if you need somewhere
to keep what you buy.