INTACT AND DAMAGE STABILITY OF CATAMARANS

The paper describes a preliminary study addressing a number of fundamental concepts involved in calculating the hydrostatic stability of intact and damaged multi-hull vehicles. The study is based on a computational procedure capable of incorporating in the stability assessment any restoration/excitation effect, in a manner consistent with physical considerations. Using a 49m wave-piercing catamaran as an example, applications are considered to intact and damaged cases incorporating wind and wave effects, and the results are presented and discussed. The over-riding conclusion from these applications is that dynamic effects must be a main consideration in assessing the stability of catamarans.