Marinas we dive · St. Petersburg
O'Neill's Marina, and the water it lives in.
Est. 1954Family ownedSkyway Boat Basin
Marinas we dive · St. Petersburg
The water
Fred O'Neill carved this basin out of a Brazilian pepper–infested tidal pool at the southern tip of the peninsula. He did not live to see it open. His sons Grant and Howard finished what he started, and O'Neill's Marina opened in 1954.
The logo still carries the older name — Skyway Boat Basin — and the bridge that gave it that name.
In the 1970s the Florida Department of Transportation moved to condemn the property to build an exit ramp off I-275. The family negotiated with the City of St. Petersburg and the State of Florida for ten years before they won and the ramp was relocated. That fight saved the marina — and it saved portions of Maximo Park, the shoreline where Antonio Maximo Hernandez built his fishing rancho in 1843.
In the early 1980s Howard's stepson Alan Phillips rebuilt the run-down basin into what stands now, driving pilings and pouring concrete himself. He runs it today with his daughter and partner, Lisa Shook — seventy years and three generations on from a tidal pool.
Two men built on this shoreline a century apart. One lost everything to a hurricane in 1848. The other's family spent ten years in negotiation and kept it.
O'Neill's Marina, St. PetersburgO'Neill's Marina lies about 4.0 miles from Pass-a-Grille Channel, with Blind Pass roughly 4.7 miles off. It sits back from the inlet, and that distance is the single best predictor of how fast a hull fouls here.
At this distance the tidal push has largely spent itself. Water warms, turnover slows, and the balance shifts toward soft growth — slime and grass rather than heavy shell.
A smaller, owner-run operation usually means a stable set of boats that stay put. Stable boats build predictable growth, which is the easiest kind to plan around.
Timeline
Antonio Maximo Hernandez receives shoreline a short way south and builds a fishing rancho trading salted mullet with Havana.
A Category 4 hurricane erases the rancho. The same storm opens John's Pass to the north-west.
Fred O'Neill begins carving a boat basin out of a Brazilian pepper-choked tidal pool on Pinellas Point.
Fred dies before completion. His sons Grant and Howard finish it, and O'Neill's Marina opens.
FDOT moves to take the property for an I-275 exit ramp.
The family negotiates with the city and the state until the ramp is relocated — saving the marina and part of Maximo Park.
Alan Phillips, Howard's stepson, drives the pilings and pours the concrete that make the modern marina.
Alan runs it with his daughter and partner Lisa Shook. Seventy years, one family.
Things worth knowing
Distance to the nearest inlet is the strongest single predictor of fouling rate. At 4.0 miles from Pass-a-Grille Channel, with Blind Pass a further 4.7 miles off, this berth sits at the edge of it.
Pinellas Point, women-owned, with a bait shop and ramp. St. Petersburg, on Boca Ciega Bay, 4.0 miles inside Pass-a-Grille Channel — well within our regular run.
Growth in Pinellas is not linear, and at 4.0 miles in the seasonal swing is pronounced but predictable. A cadence set for August will be wrong in January.
Bare metal fouls faster than painted surface everywhere on this coast, and even in slow water it leads the hull. Props, shafts and struts usually signal the timing before the paint does.
Manatees, dolphins and grass beds share Boca Ciega Bay. Method matters as much as schedule — media matched to the paint, and nothing scoured into the bottom.
With 326 reviews it is one of the quieter entries on our list — smaller fleets tend to mean more stable, more predictable fouling.
From the diver
Boca Ciega runs shallow and warm, and warm shallow water grows things. Expect a real barnacle set from May through October and a heavier slime layer than you would see in open Gulf water.
Flushing is the variable that matters most. A slip near the mouth of a canal turns over far more water than one at the dead end, and two boats a hundred yards apart can foul at noticeably different rates.
Because growth here is fast rather than gradual, cadence beats intensity. Frequent light cleans hold the paint far better than waiting for a heavy set and then scrubbing hard to catch up.
Gallery
The marina
We dive Boca Ciega Bay and know how it behaves through the season. Tell us the boat and the slip and we'll send a number and a cadence that fits the water it actually sits in.