College of Maritime Engineering and Marine Sciences

Ship Lines and Hydrostatics

Homework N°1

1.- A SWATH vessel is a type of a catamaran with unconventionally shaped hulls: two submarine-
like floating bodies lie deep under the water surface and thus create the required buoyancy. On
the waterline the vessel offers the least possible working surface In this way, the movement of
the ship caused by external forces is only slight. As a result, the vessel lies exceptionally stable
and quiet on the water, even in case of heavy sea

Figure 1. SWATH ship at sea

The SWATH vessel with total length of 38 meters analysed in this example consists of 2
submerged submarine-like floating bodies connected to a platform located above the surface, by
4 vertical legs of elongated section. The ship floats at the level of the legs.
 Figure 2. SWATH ship at a shipyard

Figure 3. Ship Form

The 4 legs are identical and arranged symmetrically according to the diagram below

Figure 4. Legs sections at water plane

The ship has two loading conditions : the light condition and the loaded condition. The diameter
of the submarines-like structures is h=4 m. The high of the legs is H=6 m. The dimensions of
the leg sections are b=3m, l=10m. see Figures 3 and 4.
1. The displacement at the loaded condition is 900 tons. The draft at this condition is 7
meters. Calculate the draft at the light condition if the displacement is 750 tons.
2. At the light condition is the ship still floating at the level of the legs?
3. Calculate the waterplane area.
4. Compare and comment on the waterplane area compared with one of a typical monohull
ship of the same length.

2.- Beyond the operational negligence and ship design of the mediatic tragedy of one capsizing
planing ship on Galapagos Islands in 2022, determine the number of passengers of one typical
planing hull. Consider the weight of the bag by passenger and the minimum freeboard of 1.02
meters. Finally, assume a constant waterplane in Figure 5.
Typical planing hull on Galapagos Island

Planing ship Characteristics

Length, L 12.6 [m]
Breath, B 2.15 [m]
Depth, D 1.55 [m]
Displacement without
passengers, Δwp 4.72 [ton]
Draught without
passengers, Twp 0.32 [m]
Figure 5. Planing hull waterplane

3.- Determine the draught of one ship with a constant transversal section. The length is 10 meters,
the breadth is 2.5 meters, and the depth is 3 meters. In fresh water, the displacement is equal to
10 tons and the section is an upside-down triangle.

The deadline is Thursday 26/10/2023 at 9H00 AM.