The new Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) regulations issued by IMO consider among others ship manoeuvrability in adverse weather conditions. This has boosted research on ship manoeuvring in waves, which is being studied by different consortia in the world, e.g. SHOPERA [1] in Europe. At the Towing Tank for Manoeuvres in Shallow Water [2] (co-operation Flanders Hydraulics Research – Ghent University) both captive and free running manoeuvring model tests in regular waves have been conducted in shallow water conditions. During the tests, different challenges were experienced, related to the ship motions, the wave behaviour in finite water depths, and the propagation of waves along the tank. In addition, challenges due to interaction between the ship, the waves, and the tank’s sidewalls have also been encountered. In shallow water, such interaction is rather inevitable mainly due to the lower ship speeds attained. For this reason, tests with (regular) waves needed to be optimized according to several criteria. The publication provides an overview of these issues encountered and how these have been coped with in model testing.