Reeds Vol 13: Ship Stability, Powering and Resistance, 2nd Edition

Authors: Jonathan Ridley, Christopher Patterson

Published: August 2021

This indispensable guide to ship stability covers essential topics such as flotation and buoyancy, small angle, large angle and longitudinal stability, water density effects, bilging, ship resistance, and advanced hydrostatics. Each chapter has a comprehensive list of aims and objectives at the start of the topic, followed by a checklist at the end of the topic for students to ensure that they have developed all the relevant skills before moving onto the next topic area.

The book features over 170 worked examples with fully explained solutions, enabling students to work through the examples to build up their knowledge and develop the necessary key skills. The worked examples, which range in difficulty from very simple one-step solutions to SQA standard exam questions and above, are predominantly based on a hypothetical ship. The reader is supplied with extracts from a typical data book for the ship which replicates those found on actual ships, enabling the reader to develop and practise real-life skills.


This edition has been fully updated in line with the recently changed rules and regulations around ship stability and the updated national exam syllabus. Updates include corrections and clarifications to worked examples, new text on damaged stability and probabilistic stability, extra content on hydrostatic forces and centres of pressure, and extra content on stability information for small craft.