# Air Draft of Cruise Ships



## jimbo7328 (May 18, 2013)

Good day, everyone. I recently joined this site and am wondering if members can provide me with information on the air draft of cruise ships, and, possibly, restrictions by cruise lines of additional height clearances required for passing under bridges. I live in the Baltimore, MD (USA) region and often cruise from the Port of Baltimore. We have two bridges ships must pass under to reach our port - The Chesapeake Bay Bridges (186' or 56.7m) and the Baltimore Key Bridge (185' or 56.4m). The Carnival Pride (air draft 172.2') and Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas (170.5') serve us, and when these ships retire from service, very few new ships have the clearance to pass under our bridges. Royal Caribbean Radiance-class ships (est air draft 172.3') should be able to come to our port, but Royal Caribbean says they do not have the height clearance. That tells me additional factors (antennas) may be involved. So, I am looking to do***ent various air draft statistics on current cruise ships to see which ships can pass under our 185' bridges. Thank you in advance for any information available on this forum.


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## fred henderson (Jun 13, 2005)

Firstly, welcome to Ships Nostalgia Jimbo.

Air Draught details are rarely included in the published technical details. I am sure however that someone on SN will be able to assist your search.

Queen Mary 2 was designed with a squat funnel to enable her to pass under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, which has a maximum allowable air draught of 62 metres.

The Oasis of the Seas was built in Finland and passed out of the Baltic under the Oresund Bridge, which has 57 metre headroom under the main span. The ship passed under the bridge at maximum speed to make the most of the way she settles into the water at speed.

It seems that the Port of Baltimore with 56 metre bridges may have increasingly restricted use in the future


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## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

Having been under Tamar Bridge a couple of times on Independence of the Seas we were to that clearance was between 2 and 3 metres. 
geoff


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## Klaatu83 (Jan 22, 2009)

Air draft is a problem with many types of ships these days, not just cruise ships. I used to sail on some of the large Sea-Land container ships that used to dock at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. We had to pass under the Bayonne Bridge, in Kill Van Kull, which had a clearance of 151 feet. We had to be very careful about our air-draft when passing under that bridge. The depth of water was such that we couldn't make the passage at low tide but, by the same token, the height of the bridge was such that we couldn't do it at high tide either. As originally built the ships had a retractable mast, which had to be lowered before transiting under bridges, and which were subsequently removed. Although it never happened when I was on board, I had heard of instances of crews forgetting to retract the mast, and striking the bridge with it.


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## jimbo7328 (May 18, 2013)

The Royal Caribbean Oasis-class ships have an air draft of 236' (72m), and have telescoping funnels which enabled them to pass under the Denmark Great Belt bridge, which has a clearance of 213' (65m), when leaving the shipyard in Finland. I doubt if cruise lines will incorporate telescoping funnels into all new ship builds. They may do this for ships destined to pass thru the Panama Canal, however, to permit a full transit under the Bridge of the Americas, which has a 201' (61m) clearance. And for Alaska, ships leaving Vancouver need to pass under the Lion's Gate bridge, which has a 200' clearance.


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