The heights quoted should be interpreted as being the average maximum wave heights from which the maximum

acceptable significant wave height may be obtained, if the duration of the design wave condition is known (see 27.3). If the duration of the design wave condition is not known, then the significant height may be taken to be of the order of half the average maximum wave height. As the response of pleasure craft and fishing boats to waves with periods of a minute or longer can be expected to be similar to the effect produced by currents, these long waves are not considered important for such boats, once they are moored. Thus, the criteria given in 30.2 to 30.4 apply to the residual height of waves inside the harbour at storm or swell wave periods. 30.2 Marinas. The maximum wave height considered as acceptable is 0.3 m. Typically, this makes the maximum acceptable significant wave height 0.15 m. One of the major limitations in marinas is that boats are often moored close to one another so that very little movement is possible before damaging collisions occur. For marinas in exposed locations it will be necessary to build a system of overlapping breakwaters in order to achieve acceptable wave conditions. A useful guide in such situations is that the open sea should not be directly visible at water level from mooring positions inside the marina at any state of the tide. 30.3 Fishing harbours. Since fishing craft are normally larger and more strongly built than pleasure craft the maximum wave height considered as acceptable for boats up to 30 m in length is 0.8 m. Typically, this makes the maximum acceptable significant wave height 0.4 m. As in the case of pleasure craft, inner harbours or basins are frequently provided for accommodating fishing boats safely. 30.4 Lighterage. With a large open boat or barge moored alongside a larger vessel for the purpose of loading or unloading cargo, the main difficulty due to wave action is likely to be relative movement between the two vessels. Acceptable wave conditions for this type of cargo handling, which can take place inside larger harbours as well as just offshore, will depend on the nature of the cargo, the method of cargo handling and the sort of risk considered acceptable at the particular site. Generally, it is unlikely that the maximum acceptable wave height will exceed 2 m, making the maximum acceptable significant wave height about 1 m, provided that such wave conditions are also acceptable from the point of view of keeping the large vessel on its moorings (see clause 31). 31 Acceptable wave conditions for moored ships 31.1 General. Guidance is given in this clause on the response to wave actions of larger vessels moored inside harbours or at offshore terminals.

Due to the complexity of vessel response it is extremely difficult to define acceptable conditions directly in terms of wave height. One reason for this is the non-linear relationship between horizontal oscillation of large vessels on their moorings and the storm or swell wave heights, since the natural periods of large vessels correspond more closely with those of long waves and wave groups than with storm or swell waves. A further difficulty is that mooring loads due to wind and current can be a significant proportion of the total mooring force for large vessels. Thus, to avoid mooring lines breaking, the maximum acceptable wave height has often to be reduced in the presence of wind and current. Some background to the subject of moored ship motions is given in 31.2 and techniques available for determining acceptable sea states for moored ships are described in 31.3. Acceptable ship movements are discussed in 31.4. 31.2 Background information. When a floating body oscillates in water it creates a disturbance. In open water the inertia of the surrounding water accelerated by the motion of the body effectively increases the mass of that body and is known as the added mass. Oscillation also produces waves that propagate away from the body carrying energy with them which tends to damp out the oscillation. Other damping mechanisms are skin friction, for streamlined bodies, and the creation of turbulent motions due to flow separation, for a blunt body. The hydrodynamic coefficients of added mass and damping are different for each type of vessel movement, are dependent on the period of oscillation and, in shallow water, vary with underkeel clearance. The forces tending to restore a moored vessel to its equilibrium position are buoyancy forces for vertical motions and forces supplied by the moorings for horizontal motions. These restoring forces give rise to natural periods of oscillation which, for vertical motions, can be within the range of swell and storm waves whereas, for horizontal motion, they vary from about 20 s for vessels of 3 000 t displacement to periods of a minute or longer for vessels in excess of 100 000 t.