Panamax
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Panamax (the name PanMax is also commonly used ) is a term from shipping and describes ships, especially container ships , but increasingly also passenger ships , which, based on their dimensions, just barely fit through the two smaller locks of the Panama Canal that existed until the expansion in 2016 .
Neopanamax- class ships are larger and can only pass the new lock route.
Panamax
According to the rules of the Panama Canal Authority, a Panamax ship is a maximum of 294.3 m (965 ft) long and 32.3 m (106 ft) wide with a draft of 12.04 m (39.5 ft) TFW (Tropical freshwater ) (in tropical fresh water) and provided that a number of technical details are met. The ship then has 1.5 m of water under the keel in Gatunsee and at least 0.6 m of water above the lock threshold. In the locks, there is only 61 cm between the ship and the lock wall on both sides. These dimensions are very tight and leave little room for errors in control.
Another problem with Panamax ships is that they are generally not allowed to be loaded up to their maximum payload if they want to pass the canal, otherwise the draft would be too great. When adjusting the draft, it should be noted that the upper section of the canal, the Gatunsee , consists of fresh water and there the buoyancy is a few percent less than in lake water.
By today's standards, such ships are only medium-sized. Many modern container ships are as large as possible in the interests of better cost efficiency. Ships that exceed the Panamax restrictions are known as Postpanamax or Overpanamax ships. Ships that are too big to pass the Suez Canal are summarized under the term Capesize , because they may have to sail around the South African Cape of Good Hope / Cape Agulhas .
Neopanamax
Since the expansion of the Panama Canal on June 26, 2016, most of the post-panamax ships have been able to pass through the Panama Canal. The new locks are 427 m long, 55 m wide and 18.3 m deep. The largest permitted ship dimensions are now 366 meters in length, 49 meters in width and 15.2 meters in draft. Ships of this type are called Neopanamax , Panamax II , or New Panamax .
Widening of Panamax container ships
The widening of the Panama Canal made it possible to widen some of the narrow Panamax container ships. This gave them a much larger loading capacity (e.g. 6300 TEU instead of 5000 TEU) and (with slow steaming ) they are more economical to operate than before.
See also
Web links
- Autoridad del Canal de Panamá - Vessel Requirements (PDF, 1.5 MiB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Comparison of One 3-Lift Lock with 1-lift plus 2 lift at Pacific side. (No longer available online.) Panama Canal Authority, May 16, 2003, p. 2 , archived from the original May 7, 2009 ; accessed on September 23, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Broader and deeper through Panama. www.zeit.de, June 16, 2016, accessed June 27, 2016 .
- ^ Op's Advisory to Shipping No. A-02-2009. Panama Canal Authority, January 19, 2009, accessed September 23, 2012 .
- ^ Panamax and New Panamax. www.maritime-connector.com, accessed on June 27, 2016 (English).
- ^ Lutz Müller, Olaf Doerk: Widening of Panamax container ships . In: Schiff & Hafen , issue 8/2017, pp. 12-17
