Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Dover Point, NH

On the east side of Dover Point, Hilton State Park has a pier, float landing, gravel-surfaced ramp for launching small craft from trailers, special parking facilities for cars and boat trailers, and picnic areas. Water is available at the float; and restaurants, lodging, and telephones are nearby.
About 1.9 miles northward of Dover Point, on the west bank, is a boatyard and marina with space for transients. A marine travel lift can handle craft to 35 tons and 65 feet in length. Both open and indoor winter storage is available. Marine supplies, professional marine services, a fuel dock and restaurant are also available.

Navigation
The Piscataqua River has ample depth for large vessels for about 3.5 miles above the second lift bridge at Portsmouth to its confluence with its western branch at the fork at Dover Point. Most of the dangers in this section of the river are marked.

The river is buoyed to a point about 2.5 miles above Dover Point. Its western branch in Little Bay is marked for about 4.8 miles above Dover Point to a point in Great Bay, about 1 mile above Adams Point in Furber Strait.

General navigation throughout the entire length of the Piscataqua River system is severely hampered by rapid tidal currents. The velocities of these currents differ at various locations because of the irregularities in the width and depth of the river and its tributaries.

The maximum average velocity in the river occurs off Nobles Island and off Dover Point at the entrance to Little Bay, and amounts to over 4 knots on the ebb. The irregularities of width and depth plus the abrupt directional changes of course result in changes in the direction of the currents which at some locations do not coincide with the direction of the channel and cause hazardous crosscurrents.

As a result of the combination of rapid tidal currents and hazardous crosscurrents, navigation of deep-draft vessels is limited to the 3-hour period from 1.5 hours before to 1.5 hours after slack water.

Traffic above Dover Point is confined to yachts, fishing boats, and other small craft.