Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Ventura, CA

Small craft may anchor anywhere in Pierpont Bay, but the anchorage is unprotected and is not recommended except for short day use. Boats may obtain moorage at Ventura Harbor.
Ventura Harbor is administered by the Ventura Port District and is under the control of a harbormaster, who has an office on the point N of the entrance basin. Transients should report to the harbormaster for guest slip assignments. The harbormaster monitors VHF-FM channels 16 and 12, from 0600 to 0200 daily.
Gasoline and diesel fuel are available just E of the harbormaster’s office and at the S end of the harbor. Water, ice, and marine supplies are available. Two yacht clubs are on the shores of the harbor.
Boatyards in the harbor have mobile lifts that can haul out vessels to 150 tons for hull and engine repairs. Electronic service is also available.
Navigation:
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Ventura is 8.5 miles N of Point Hueneme on Pierpont Bay. It has a 1,960-foot fishing pier with about 19 feet of water at the outer end, and about 18 feet at the inner end of a 250-foot loading face.
Freshwater is piped to the pier, and gasoline is available in the town.
Ventura Harbor, 6.7 miles N of Point Hueneme and just N of Santa Clara River, is a small-craft harbor used by pleasure craft and commercial fishing vessels.
The entrance to Ventura Harbor is between two jetties protected by a 1,800-foot detached breakwater. The S end of the breakwater and the seaward ends of both jetties are marked by lights. A sound signal is at the S jetty light. The sound signal can be activated upon request to the Coast Guard by radiotelephone VHF-FM channel 16.
The dredged entrance channel leads NE between the jetties, then turns E into the harbor. The private buoys in the entrance channel and harbor are not charted because the positions are changed frequently due to the shifting shoals. Mariners are advised to exercise extreme caution and to contact the harbormaster for the latest channel and harbor conditions prior to entering.