• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.774-780
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• 2014

This research aims to investigate the superstructure characteristics of the CFRP-yachts whose hulls are made of the light-weight material CFRP. CFRP-yachts, which belong to light-weight yachts, have a tendency of having very small superstructures compared to other vessels of the same length, and such a tendency is closely related to stability. In this research, a comparison of shape characteristics was made between common composite-plastic yachts and CFRP-yachts to find out the shape characteristics of CFRP-yacht. In the meantime, a case study was conducted concerning shape changes in superstructure to understand the effect of such changes on stability. For this purpose the shapes of a total of 10 GFRP-yachts and CFRP-yachts were comparatively analyzed, and the result showed the tendency of their hulls and superstructures. Whereas the case study on stability assessment involved various superstructure shapes of CFRP yachts, for assessment by superstructure size. Stability assessment was according to ISO 12217 (Small craft Stability and buoyancy assessment and categorization). A program was also developed based on stability assessment process due to rolling in beam waves and wind, and it was applied to the case study. The result of the case study showed that the windage area distribution tendency of the yachts whose hulls were made of the light-weight material CFRP was similar to that of the GFRP-yachts, but that the superstructure shapes of the CFRP-yachts were about 50% smaller than those of the GFRP-yachts. In addition, the stability assessment involving various superstructure areas of the CFRP-yachts showed that problems with stability occurred when their superstructure sizes were similar to, or larger by about 10% than, those of the GFRP-yachts.