This study presents an integrated analysis of the seakeeping data collected during full-scale trials of a medium-size planing pleasure-boat in mild weather conditions. The present work is part of a more general project whose aim is to investigate the correlation between the sea state and the performance of a planing hull in terms of seakindliness, safety and powering. Full scale heave and pitch transfer functions, derived from the proposed general integrated analysis, are compared to results obtained from model scale tests in regular head waves. A focal point in the consistency of the results is found in the influence of the quality of the reconstructed directional wave spectrum derived from a standard directional wave buoy, in particular for the mild weather conditions here assumed as target for standard end-users of the boat.
The study presented in this work is part of the project SOPHYA (Seakeeping Of Planing Hull YAchts), co-funded by EU through the Regional Administration of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) POR FESR 2014–2020. The project focusses on the investigation of the performances of planing pleasure-boats in terms of sea-kindliness, safety and powering in mild weather conditions. The study is pursued via three complementary approaches: sea trials, model scale experiments and CFD simulations. In this work, the full scale investigations are discussed. The sea trials were conducted on a 65 foot yacht built by Monte Carlo Yachts (Fig. 1 - http://www.montecarloyachts.it).
It is worth noting that the correlation between full scale and predicted seakeeping performances of a vessel and its validation are still open problem. In particular, the available literature on the correlation between theoretical or model scale experimental predictions and full scale results of a planing hull in waves is somewhat limited. Generally speaking, the estimate of full scale transfer function TF is not a common practice, even though successful applications can be found especially in the naval and offshore fields. Still, within the limitations of the linear approach behind the concept of TF, the availability of TF estimates may be source of multiple benefits, such as validation of design methods and operational procedures based on the coupling between wave forecast models (forecasted spectra in time and space) and ship TF, the so-called ship response forecast.
