Sailfish Point vs Admirals Cove: Inlets, Golf, Marinas, Membership Fees and Taxes Compared

Communities

Oct 24

Quick answer: Sailfish Point, in Stuart on Hutchinson Island in Martin County, has a marina with immediate access to the St. Lucie Inlet, 84 slips for vessels up to 100 feet and one 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course. Admirals Cove, in Jupiter in Palm Beach County, has 45 holes of golf and a marina two miles from the Jupiter Inlet that the club says takes vessels up to 165 feet. Neither club publishes its initiation fees or dues on its own site. A fee schedule for November 1, 2026 to October 31, 2027 posted on a brokerage site lists a $550,000 Golf initiation at Admirals Cove, and adding its yearly dues, assessment and food minimum lines gives $65,112, plus a $2,500 trail fee for members who use their own golf cart. Adding the lines in the newest Sailfish Point booklet I found, edited June 2022 and posted on the same site, gives $165,000 in one-time payments and $44,257 a year for a golf household, plus a $1,125 trail fee. On brokerage figures, the average Admirals Cove sale was $7,146,906 over the year BEX Realty reported in October 2026, and the average Sailfish Point sale was $3,749,375 over the 12 months ending May 2026, per a RE/MAX Select Group page.

Sailfish Point and Admirals Cove answer the same request, a private club community with golf and a marina near an inlet, in different counties with different fees and tax rates. I start with each community's own pages, as I read them on October 24, 2026, and give every brokerage figure its source and date.

Sailfish Point vs Admirals Cove at a glance

Feature	Sailfish Point	Admirals Cove
Address	1648 S.E. Sailfish Point Blvd., Stuart, FL 34996 (Martin County)	200 Admirals Cove Boulevard, Jupiter 33477 (Palm Beach County)
Inlet	Marina has "immediate access to the St. Lucie Inlet"	Marina is two miles from the Jupiter Inlet
Golf	One 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course, par 72	45 holes: the 18-hole East Course and three 9-hole Golf Village courses
Marina	84 slips, vessels up to 100 feet, plus 45 dry slips for boats up to 25 feet	Club says vessels up to 165 feet; no slip count on the club site
Initiation fees and dues on the club's own site	None	None

Where are they, and which is closer to an inlet?

Sailfish Point's site places the community between the Indian River and Stuart to the west, the St. Lucie Inlet to the south and the Atlantic to the east. A fixed-span bridge links the mainland with Hutchinson Island "just outside its gates," and the entrance is 2.2 miles from MacArthur Boulevard. The marina page says boats have "immediate access to the St. Lucie Inlet." The site puts Witham Field in Stuart "less than 20 minutes away" and Palm Beach International "under an hour," and notes a private helipad.

Admirals Cove's club places its marina just west of the Intracoastal Waterway and north of Channel Marker 21, two miles from the Jupiter Inlet, with the Port of Palm Beach eight miles south. BEX Realty, in October 2026, put Palm Beach International fifteen miles away. I did not find a source for the distance from Admirals Cove to Witham Field.

Both are gated. Sailfish Point describes round-the-clock private security staffed by certified first responders, and the Admirals Cove club refers to amenities "within its gates."

Golf: one Nicklaus course or 45 holes?

Sailfish Point has one 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course, par 72. Its golf page gives tees from 4,423 to 7,117 yards; its home page says 7,088 yards. A renovation led by Nicklaus Design began in spring 2021, and the course opened again in December 2021. It is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.

Admirals Cove lists 45 holes: the 18-hole East Course by Robert von Hagge, opened in 1988, and Golf Village, three 9-hole courses redesigned by Kipp Schulties in 2015. The club also has a 4,800 square foot Golf Performance Center with four Trackman bays.

Marinas: slips, boat size and what is not published

Sailfish Point's marina has 84 slips for vessels up to 100 feet, plus 45 dry slips for personal watercraft and boats up to 25 feet. Its Yacht Club was formed in 1986 and has "nearly 300 family memberships." The June 2022 fee booklet lists annual fixed dock or lift rates of $18.00 per foot per month, seasonal rates of $22.00 per foot per month and transient rates of $3.00 per foot per day; at the 2022 annual fixed dock or lift rate, a 60-foot boat would be $1,080 a month.

Admirals Cove's own sources disagree. The club says its marina "can accommodate vessels up to 165 feet with ease," with a fuel dock and 480-volt service, but gives no slip count. Admirals Cove Realty's Marina and Yacht Club page, last modified February 13, 2025, lists 63 slips for yachts up to 130 feet and over 500 private docks, and says the Yacht Club, formed in 1990, has more than 300 members. The club's history page says the original marina had 57 slips for yachts up to 120 feet. I could not reconcile the current slip count or maximum length, and neither community publishes depths, so get your slip's length limit and depth in writing before you buy.

Clubhouses and amenities

Sailfish Point's Oceanfront Club page describes a 60,000 square foot clubhouse, names four places to eat (the Oceanside Beach Club, the Ocean Room, Surfside Grill and Terrace Grill) and lists eight HydroGrid tennis courts, a fitness center and a spa. Admirals Cove lists nine Hydro Courts, four of them lighted, twelve pickleball courts, Bluewater Wellness (spa, salon, fitness and rehabilitation), and the Waterside Private Boutique Hotel: 32 rooms on the third and fourth floors of the Clubhouse, booked only through a member. The Admirals Cove Clubhouse was completed in 1989; the club does not publish its size.

How is membership set up at each?

Sailfish Point describes itself as member-owned. The June 2022 booklet lists one combined line, "Sailfish Point Property Owners' and Country Club Association Dues," and a Gabe Sanders brokerage page says, as of June 2024, that the $75,000 capital contribution applies "for all purchases," with golf optional.

Admirals Cove's history page says the club "became an equity club in 1988," with "full member equity ownership in November 1999." Echo Fine Properties' club comparison, updated October 10, 2026, lists membership as required; the club itself does not say, so ask the membership office before you write an offer.

What does membership cost at Sailfish Point and Admirals Cove?

Neither club publishes its initiation fees or dues on its own site. The first and last columns are documents posted on a brokerage site, Echo Fine Properties, neither naming its issuer; the middle column is a brokerage's own summary. These are not same-year figures: the Sailfish Point booklet is four years older than the Admirals Cove schedule. The last two rows are my sums: adding the listed lines gives them, before sales tax and without trail fees.

Line item	Sailfish Point golf household, booklet edited June 2022	Sailfish Point golf household, Gabe Sanders page, as of June 2024	Admirals Cove Golf, schedule for November 1, 2026 to October 31, 2027
Application fee	$650	Not given	$500
Joining	$75,000 capital contribution, plus $75,000 golf capital contribution and a $15,000 renovation assessment, all non-refundable	$75,000 capital contribution, plus a $90,000 non-refundable golf fee	$550,000 Golf initiation, not refundable
Dues	$26,461 association dues, plus $15,796 golf dues plus tax	$2,356 a month for homes ($28,272 a year), plus $16,894 golf	$8,676 capital dues, plus $50,908 operating dues
Assessment	Not given	Not given	$3,528, "2020 Debt Service Assessment"
Food and beverage minimum	$2,000	$2,000	$2,000
Trail fee, not in the totals	$1,125 plus tax	Not given	$2,500, payable by members who use their own golf cart (Echo's comparison and Admirals Cove Realty's membership page show $1,300)
Adding the one-time lines gives	$165,000 plus the $650 fee	$165,000	$550,000 plus the $500 fee
Adding the yearly lines gives	$44,257	$47,166, if the golf charge is in addition to the monthly dues	$65,112

The Gabe Sanders page says its monthly fees "include golf and social memberships" yet also lists the $16,894 yearly golf charge, so it is unclear whether that charge is extra; a RE/MAX Select Group page by Stracuzzi reports the same figures, treats the golf charge as added and calls the $90,000 an initiation fee. Gabe Sanders lists $4,509 a month for townhomes and $4,256 to $6,329 for condos. The 2022 booklet does not say whether its trail fee applies only to members with their own cart. Ask each club.

All four Admirals Cove categories carry a $2,000 food and beverage minimum; Florida sales tax applies, and marina fees are not on the schedule.

Admirals Cove, 2026 to 2027	Initiation	Capital dues	Operating dues	2020 Debt Service Assessment
Golf	$550,000	$8,676	$50,908	$3,528
Sports	$435,000	$8,016	$43,538	$3,048
Tennis	$410,000	$7,152	$34,032	$2,100
Social	$360,000	$7,020	$32,454	$2,088

For the clubs between Vero Beach and Hobe Sound, see what golf club memberships cost on the Treasure Coast.

What do homes sell for?

Neither community publishes sales data; these brokerage figures cover different periods. For Sailfish Point, Stracuzzi (RE/MAX Select Group) reports 24 home sales in the 12 months ending May 2026, at an average of $3,749,375, 92 percent of list price and about $739 per square foot. For Admirals Cove, BEX Realty reported in October 2026 that 48 homes changed hands over the past year on the Jupiter MLS at an average of $7,146,906, with listings priced between $2,350,000 and $32,000,000. A few large sales can move these averages, so treat the gap as scale, not any one home's price.

How do property taxes compare?

Florida tax rates are set in mills: a rate of 15.6581 means $15.6581 for every $1,000 of taxable value. The Martin County Property Appraiser's 2026 final rates list a total of 15.6581 for levy code 6106, District One (Hutchinson Island), and 17.1323 for the City of Stuart (levy code 3100). A Stuart mailing address does not settle which applies, and I did not confirm Sailfish Point's levy code, so look up the parcel. At 15.6581 mills, each $1,000,000 of taxable value is $15,658.10 a year.

Palm Beach County's rates sheet, revised July 29, 2026, gives no total for a Jupiter parcel. It lists the Town of Jupiter at 2.3894 for 2025 (final) and 3.5886 proposed for 2026; the county at 4.5000 in both years; and the school board at 3.0730 (state) and 3.2480 (local) for 2025, against 3.0390 and 3.2480 proposed for 2026, plus several special district rates. I did not confirm the town's final adopted 2026 rate, or whether all of Admirals Cove lies inside the town. Compare each parcel's TRIM notice or tax bill, keeping in mind that a seller's tax bill can mislead a buyer, and ask the county property appraiser or a CPA about your own situation.

What should I ask both clubs?

The current fee schedule in writing from the club, with its effective dates and any refundable amounts.
Whether buying the home requires membership, and in which category.
Assessments approved or planned, including debt service lines.
Slip availability, the length limit and depth for the slip you would use, and marina fees.
The parcel's levy code, TRIM notice and most recent tax bill.

What I could not confirm

Neither community's official pages gave me a home count, or Sailfish Point's acreage, and secondary counts disagree, so I left them out. Admirals Cove's history page describes the 727-acre parcel developer Ben Frankel started with; other sources differ. Older secondary Sailfish Point golf figures conflict with the 2022 booklet, so I did not use them. For the Admirals Cove trail fee, I used the 2026 to 2027 schedule's $2,500 and noted the $1,300 shown elsewhere.

Compare a specific home in each, with its boat slip and fee schedule. My Sailfish Point guide and Palm Beach County gated communities guide go deeper on each side.

Questions people ask about Sailfish Point vs Admirals Cove

Which is closer to an inlet, Sailfish Point or Admirals Cove?

Sailfish Point's marina page says it has immediate access to the St. Lucie Inlet. The Admirals Cove club says its marina is two miles from the Jupiter Inlet.

How many golf holes does each community have?

Sailfish Point has one 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature course, par 72. Admirals Cove has 45 holes: the 18-hole East Course by Robert von Hagge and three 9-hole Golf Village courses redesigned by Kipp Schulties in 2015.

What does it cost to join Admirals Cove?

A fee schedule for November 1, 2026 to October 31, 2027, posted on a brokerage site without naming its issuer, lists a $550,000 Golf initiation, not refundable, $8,676 in capital dues and $50,908 in operating dues, plus a $3,528 debt service assessment and a $2,000 food minimum; members who use their own golf cart also pay a $2,500 trail fee. The Social initiation on the same schedule is $360,000.

What does Sailfish Point membership cost?

The club does not publish its initiation fees or dues. A booklet edited June 2022 and posted on a brokerage site lists a $75,000 capital contribution and $26,461 in combined association dues, with golf adding $75,000, a $15,000 renovation assessment and $15,796 in dues; a Gabe Sanders brokerage page gives home dues of $2,356 a month, which it says include golf and social memberships, and a $90,000 golf fee as of June 2024.

How big a boat can each marina take?

Sailfish Point says 84 slips for vessels up to 100 feet. The Admirals Cove club says up to 165 feet, while Admirals Cove Realty's marina page, last modified February 13, 2025, lists 63 slips for yachts up to 130 feet, so get the limit for your slip in writing.

How far is each from Palm Beach International Airport?

Sailfish Point's site says under an hour, with Witham Field in Stuart less than 20 minutes away. BEX Realty, in October 2026, put Admirals Cove fifteen miles from Palm Beach International.

Talk with William. Weighing Sailfish Point against Admirals Cove? Call or text me your price range, the kind of home you want and your boat's length, and I will pull the recent closed sales in both communities, look up the parcels' tax records, and list the questions to put to each club's membership office, so you can compare the two on the same terms. Call or text (772) 800-2274 or send a message.

General information, not legal, tax, lending or insurance advice, and not a guarantee of any price, fee, date or outcome. Neither club publishes its initiation fees or dues on its own site: the Admirals Cove schedule and the June 2022 Sailfish Point booklet are documents posted on a brokerage site without a named issuer, the sales figures are brokerages', and Sailfish Point's levy code and the Town of Jupiter's final 2026 rate were not confirmed. Confirm fees with each club's membership office and taxes with the county property appraiser. References are as reviewed on October 24, 2026. William Merchant, REALTOR®, RE/MAX Gold. Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Sources

sailfish point vs admirals covesailfish pointadmirals covestuart golf communitiesjupiter waterfront homes

William Merchant