Panama Canal’s Manned Model Ship Training Center

The Panama Canal’s most recent training facility, the Center of Manned Scale Model Ships, features a ship handling training center for maneuvers using manned model ships at a scale of 1:25. The construction and implementation of this training center, the first of its kind in the region, arrived hand in hand with the Third Set of Locks Program to address the need for the required training to safely handle Neo-Panamax ships through the expanded Canal. This training center is a physical, to-scale representation of bodies of water and several structures stationed throughout the Panama Canal, and it provides pilots with essential training in order to acquire responsiveness and maneuverability skills in handling Neo-Panamax vessels in the new locks and expanded channels and ports.

The manned scale model ship center can replicate real effects at a reduced scale without the risk of damaging full sized, working vessels. The center in Panama is the only one with a true, to scale reproduction of Locks, docks and channels of the Panama Canal. This facility consists of two artificial lakes connected by a channel that emulates the Culebra Cut. This channel was designed and constructed to exactly represent the actual Culebra Cut, including its alignment and the lengths, widths, depths and headings of each of its reaches. The conceptualization and implementation of this center was completely executed by a multi-disciplinary team of the Panama Canal’s finest professionals.

The manned scale model training center located at the Panama Canal has been one of the most important elements for training pilots in the safe handling of Neo-Panamax vessels. The physics of applied forces and hydrodynamics are two very important factors that directly affect ship handling maneuvers. The hydrodynamic effects experienced during the flow interaction and the physical phenomenon perceived during a specific maneuver over non-uniform and vorticial effects provided by currents generated in a navigation tunnel, and different analysis in narrow spaces, are best simulated through this manned model.

Ultimately, the Panama Canal’s manned scale model ship training facility has become a significant part of the success of the Neo-Panamax ships transiting through the Panama Canal. It is now an integral part of the pilot’s training program at the Canal, as well as providing support and training to other professionals outside the Panama Canal.

KEY WORDS: manned model, training, ship handling