SHIPS WITH SMALL WATER-PLANE AREA: THE MAIN INFORMATION

Ships with small water-plane area (below “SWA ships”) have very special shapeof hulls. It is the reason of characteristic speciβicity of such ships.SWA ships usually are multi-hull ones. And as all multi-hulls, SWA ships dif-fer from the comparable mono-hulls by bigger deck area relative the displace-ment and by simple ensuring of stability.There are some architectural types of SWA ships. Their differences areshown by the article. Relative area of deck and initial transverse stability ofSWA ships are compared. Statistical data on performance: twin-hull SWA shipversus catamarans. Common speciβicity of seakeeping and controllability. Themain external loads. Special method of designing. Main disadvantages. Conclu-sions, recommendation.