Draft, or draught, is the vertical distance from a vessel’s waterline to the bottom of its keel: how deep the ship sits in the water. It varies with cargo load and fuel, and it decides which ports, channels, and berths the ship can safely enter.
Draft is the physical handshake between ship and port: a laden ultra-large containership can draw well over fourteen metres, and only ports with dredged channels and deep berths can take it, which is one reason mainline calls concentrate at hub ports while feeders serve the rest.
Operationally, draft interacts with tides and silting: some ports accept deep-draft arrivals only on tidal windows, and loading plans manage the arrival draft to fit the destination. Ships broadcast their current draught in AIS static data.
Draft explains patterns tracking shows: a vessel waiting outside a port for hours can be holding for a tidal window rather than a berth queue, and a routing via a hub can be a draft constraint rather than a commercial whim. The vessel context in TrackingMCP plus port pages makes those readings available next to your container’s events.
Draft, or draught, is the vertical distance from a vessel’s waterline to the bottom of its keel: how deep the ship sits in the water. It varies with cargo load and fuel, and it decides which ports, channels, and berths the ship can safely enter.
Indirectly but concretely: draft limits shape which vessels serve which ports and when they can arrive, so it influences routings, tidal-window delays, and whether your port gets direct or feeder service.
No. Design limits are fixed, but the actual draft changes with loading condition. The same ship can draw metres less on a light leg than fully laden.
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