Maritime glossary
Beam
The widest point of a vessel, the constraining dimension for lock chambers, dry docks, and some terminals.
Definition
Beam is the maximum breadth of a vessel’s hull, measured at the broadest cross-section. Together with LOA and draught it decides whether a ship can transit a given lock or enter a given dry dock. Panamax beam is 32.31 m for the original locks or 49 m for the New Panamax locks. A wide-beam vessel is one designed to exploit the New Panamax dimensions for better cargo economics.
How Vessel Hunter uses Beam
Beam appears on every dossier and feeds the port-fit filter, so you can narrow your inbound list to ships your terminal can actually handle.
Related terms
- LOALength Overall
The maximum length of a vessel from the foremost to the aftmost point, including any fixed projections.
- Draught
The vertical distance from the waterline to the deepest point of the hull, the constraint that decides which ports a loaded vessel can enter.
- Panamax
A vessel sized to the original Panama Canal locks, with a beam limit of 32.31 metres.
- Neo-PanamaxNew Panamax
A vessel sized to the expanded Panama Canal locks opened in 2016, with a beam up to 49 metres.
The bigger picture
Beam is one piece of the commercial maritime picture Vessel Hunter pulls together for shipyards, suppliers, service providers, and port agents. Every vessel record bundles AIS, ownership, inspections, dry-dock history, casualty record, classification status, and a verified contact for the operator decision-maker behind the ship, so the team that reaches out first wins the work.
Continue reading: full maritime glossary · every Vessel Hunter feature.