Boat lift

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strépy-Thieu boat lift (Belgium).

The Falkirk Wheel.

Peterborough (Canada) Lift Lock.

The devices that are described hereafter are called boat lift or shiplift. A boatlift and a shiplift however can also be a device on a shipyard to dry dock and launch ships for repair and or newbuilding.

A boat lift, ship lift, or lift lock is a machine for transporting boats between two different water heights, and is an alternative to the canal lock and the canal inclined plane.

It may be either vertically moving, like the ship lifts in Germany, Belgium or "Les Fontinettes" in France or the Anderton Boat Lift in England, or rotational, like the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland.

The world's highest boat lift, with a 73.15 metre height difference and European Class IV (1350 tonne) capacity, is the Strépy-Thieu boat lift in Belgium.

The ship lift at the Three Gorges Dam will be able to lift vessels of up to 3,000 tons displacement.^[1]

**Notable lift locks — ordered by size**
location	displacement	dimensions	vertical lift	cycle time
Three Gorges Dam	3000 tons	280 x 35 meters x 5 metres	113	30-40 minutes
Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam	1500 tons	80 x 17 x 2 metres	104 metres
Strépy-Thieu	1350 tons	–	73.15
Scharnebeck, Germany	1350 tons	105.4 x 15.8 x 3.4 metres	38 metres	3 minutes
Peterborough, Ontario	1300 tons	42.7 x 10.1 x 2.1 metres	19.8 metres	10 minutes
Kirkfield, Ontario	1300 tons	42.7 x 10.1 x 2.1 metres	14.9 metres	10 minutes
Falkirk Wheel	600 tons	–	35 metres	4 minutes
Danjiangkou dam, China	450 tons
Geheyan dam, China	300 tons
Longtan dam, China	250 tons	40×10.8×1.8 metres	68.5 metres	claimed to be the "fastest ship-lift in the world"
Anderton Boat Lift	250 tons	22.9 x 4.7 x 2.9 metres	15.25