• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.363-371
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• 1996

The Steering and Sailing Rules of International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea now in use direct the best aid - action to avoid collision by the stand - on vessel. But these rules do not refer to the safety relative distance between two vessels when she should take such action. In this paper, the author analyzed the ship's collision avoiding actions from the viewpoint of ship motions and worked out mathematical formulas to calculate the relative distances necessary for taking action to avoid collision. Figuring out the values of maneuvering indices through experiments of 11 actual ships of small, medium, large and mammoth size, the author applied these values to the calculating formulas and calculated the minimum relative distances. The main results are as follows: 1. It was confIrmed that the stand - on vessel should keep the greatest relative distance for taking best aid - action to avoid collision when the cross angle of course was $90^{\circ}$ and near it(70-$90^{\circ}$ ). 2. When the cross angle of course was $90^{\circ}$ , the minimum relative distance of small vessel(GT: 160-650tons) was found to be more than about 6.8 times of her own length, and those of medium(GT : 2,300-3,500tons), large(GT : 22,OOO-62,OOOtons) and mammoth(GT : 91,000-139,000tons) vessels were found to be more than about 9.0 times, about 5.4 times and about 6.8 times of their own lengths. 3. It was confIrmed that collision danger was greater when crossing angle was obtuse than in an acute angle, therefore greater relative distance was to be kept by the stand - on vessel for taking best aid - action to avoid collision in the case of the obtuse angle. 4. In every vessels, in the case of $90^{\circ}$ cross angle of course the safety minimum relative distance was found to be more than about 9.0 times of their own lengths.