Sailing Ship Intact Stability Criteria

Abstract

The comeback in recent years to the world's oceans of large displacement sailing vessels has increased the interest in design requirements. At the same time, there have been a number of accidents and capsizings of sailing vessels that investigators have attributed to a lack of adequate intact stability. In an attempt to identify improved stability criteria for large sailing vessels, using the U.S. Coast Guard training barque Eagle as a model, the authors have conducted a worldwide search of the literature and other sources to gather a body of criteria for comparison with each other and then with the existing standards for the Eagle. The results of this research are presented and illustrated, including the domain of interaction between ship motion and sail forces. The methods presented herein could be a useful contribution to the safe design and operation of large sailing vessels.