Improving the Design Process of Pleasure Yachts for CE RCD Certification via Modification to Buoyancy and Stability Assessment Method

CE RCD (Recreational Craft Directive) is a certification for the design and construction of small vessels, including pleasure yachts, which are widely used not only in the countries within the European Union, but also in Japan and Southeast Asia. Recently, South Korean leisure craft shipyards have developed interest in exporting to foreign leisure craft markets such as Europe; however, they have encountered difficulties because of the CE RCD regulations, which are relatively complex and difficult to understand. The requirements for buoyancy and stability, which are essential properties that must be understood within the early stage of ship design, are defined based on ISO 12217. However, preparing this assessment according to ship classification regulations is an exceedingly complex task, even with knowledge of naval architecture. In this research, we have developed design support tools to systematically support assessments and preemptively define design information so that buoyancy and stability assessments based on ISO 12217 can be systematically prepared. Our research results were applied to actual examples of yacht design to confirm validity. We believe that the improved yacht design process presented in this research can act as a foundational reference for enhancing the effectiveness and systematic buoyancy and stability assessments.