Hull Draught

Hull draught is the vertical distance from a vessel’s waterline to the lowest point of its hull or keel. It represents the minimum depth of water needed for the boat to float without touching the seabed, allowing for clearance and movement.

Knowing your hull draught is essential when entering harbours, crossing bars, using canals, or anchoring in shallow bays. It must be compared with charted depths, tide height and safe under-keel clearance to reduce grounding risk. Draught is closely related to the Keel, Waterline and Chart Datum.

Draught can increase with fuel, water, stores, passengers or cargo, and may differ forward and aft. PredictWind tidal charts and routing tools help skippers assess whether a channel, anchorage or departure window has enough depth, especially when planning around a Tidal Atlas.