The waiting time of the ship on port entrance at required water level

Abstract

The safety of a ship which manoeuvres within a port area depends to a large extent on the underkeel clearance (UKC). Ports have been built to handle ships of specific maximum parameters. In many cases, however, the existing ports face the need to accept ships larger than those they were designed for. The construction of newharbours is limited by both natural conditions and exceedingly high estimated costs. The main restriction for handling larger ships is the depth of port basins, directly affecting the safety of the manoeuvring ship. The minimum underkeel clearance is most often specified by port regulations as a constant value. However, depending on the prevailingconditions, mainly water level, this required UKC value can be reduced. Thus, ships of larger draft will be allowed to enter. This article / paper present a method of UKC optimization with two restrictions: maximum permitted navigational risk and the time ofwaiting for sufficient water level. An example has been given in reference to ship’s waiting time probability for the port of Świnoujście.

Keywords

• safety of a ship
• minimum underkeel clearance
• navigational risk
• time of waiting