 One of the main purposes of the Organization consists of promoting the highest practical standards of maritime safety and navigation, and the Sub-Committee on Stability and Load Lines and on Fishing Vessels Safety in its current, as well as in its previous, work undertakes all possible effort to incorporate the latest achievements related to both design and theoretical areas into its existing standards as well as in regulations actually being developed.
So far, intact stability requirements and recommendations have been developed for passenger ships, cargo ships, fishing vessels, dynamically supported craft, MODUs, offshore supply vessels, special purpose ships and sea-going pontoons, thus covering the overwhelming majority of the world's merchant fleet. Standards of damage stability were introduced for the first time for passenger ships in the 1948 SOLAS Convention and re-adopted by the 1960 and 1974 SOLAS Conventions. For some specific categories of ships, such as tankers, chemical tankers and gas carriers, IMO developed sets of requirements and recommendations based on the principle of prevention of massive spillage of their cargo into the sea; the current "state of the art" for other types of vessels has been given below.
The detailed description or IMO's activities related to the development of stability standards within the period 1962 to 1986 was given in papers presented at the Second and Third International Conferences on Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles held in 1982 in Tokyo and in 1986 in Gdansk, respectively. This paper summarizes the progress achieved by the SLF Sub-Committee since 1986...
 As long as shipping existed ships were exposed to the hostile environment and shipbuilders from the oldest times learned that in order to survive in this environment ships had to stable. They developed also by the method of trials and errors the practical knowledge how to build comparatively stable ships, however hot stable enough to ensure the safe completion of the voyage.
In modern times understanding of basic laws of ship's geometry and static stability enabled naval architects to make calculations during the design stage, then developments in ship hydrodynamics allowed to calculate the behaviour of ship in a seaway and the effect of external forces on stability. Nevertheless from time to time ships were lost as a result of capsizing quite often with all hands onboard. Even introduction by some nations of stability regulations which also included certain stability criteria did not eliminate casualties.
For more than twenty years IMO have made numerous attempts to establish international requirements for ship stability. The achieving of this aim is now becoming possible because of the latest development of stability criteria, which is one of the most complex problems of ship design and construction.
 It has always been quite gratifying to attract a large gathering of distinguished experts from all over the world to a particular location for discussion on aspects of their specialist subject. In this case the location was the University of Strathelyde, Glasgow and the subject was the important topic of intact stability of ships and ocean vehicles. The two main purposes of the conference were to provide a forum at international level for the discussion of research findings on stability, and to facilitate the use of such research findings as guidelines for future research efforts and encourage the practical application of the results.
The conference was unique in that it was the first occasion on which so many experts on the topic were gathered under the one roof to examine stability. The opportunity thus presented to elicit the opinions of such a group was too good to miss and this brief report comments on the methods adopted and the results achieved in a delegate survey. It would be very good and useful to go through the materials collected in such compilations in order to be in line with the developments in the industry, starting from the very first conference. That is why we would recommend to have all of the articles readily available.
 For the first time in recent history. Russia is hosting an esteemed international conference in the field of stability and safety of ships and ocean vehicles. This is a token of recognition of the contribution made by Russian researchers in this field for the last hundred years. Traditionally. STAB conferences are places for the exchange of information on the most recent results, formulation new ideas and directions of research, as well as a place for discussions of new proposals for stability criteria and standards.
This is why there are well-established sets of sessions like Rules and Criteria. Intact Stability. Damage Stability. Nonlinear Dynamics, etc. The difference between the conferences was mostly on key problems that were discussed within the frames of these sessions. This conference has a large number of papers focused on numerical and IT aspects of stability-related problems. Inevitably, as these problems became complex or diverse, use of new information technologies comes into the focus. These technologies are now considered from a new point of view: not so much as just a more powerful computing tool, but rather focusing on facilitation of the exchange of data and knowledge between researchers.
There is an understanding that these technologies are needed, not because they are convenient, but because new problems cannot be solved without these new technologies. This understanding becomes a factor of progress just by itself. Almost ninety papers were submitted for the conference, and the authors of these papers represent more than twenty countries. All the papers were peer-reviewed. I hope that the hard work of the reviewer's will help the conference be a success. I would also like to acknowledge the great help from the members of the international standing committee, particularly. Dr. Vadim Belenky. Prof. Kostas Spyrou. Prof. Alberto Francescutto and Prof. Luis Peres Rojas.
However, the conference is being held at a time that is not easy at all for the global economy. It makes it even more valuable that the spread of participation covers the entire world: Japan. Korea. Europe. Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. It shows how important, as an international event...
 Same as with the other STAB conferences, this compilation of files includes all papers presented in the course of the Seventh conference held in Madrid, Spain in 2003. The papers included in this set have been grouped. The first group describes the historical routes of the theory of the vessels' hydrostatic stability; the second group contains papers on the accident investigation and addresses the investigations of two famous accidents, namely sinking of the ro-ro passenger ferry "Express Samina" and capsizing of a fishing vessel "Ryuho Maru No. 5". The water on deck section consists of two articles, first on the nonlinear roll and numerical approach, and second dedicated to the investigation into various effects of the shallow water on deck. The section "extreme weather effects" explains the effects of the green sea loads on general cargo ships, and lashing the trailers on the ro-ro vessels under intensive rolling. The unconventional ships have also been dealt with in one of the chapters providing the latest studies of the dynamic stability of an UWV (underwater vehicle) and damage stability of TLP (tension leg platform) in ice environment. The other sections of the book cover design for safety, damage ship stability, safety of the large passenger vessels, parametric rolling, regulatory aspects etc.
 The first of the numerous papers that have been presented in the course of the Second STAB held in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan, deals with the following aspects related to the capsizing of the hotel platform "Alexander L. Kielland": a short overview of the design features of the Pentagone offshore platform together with the circumstances of the accident, static analysis of the capsizing, theoretical calculations relating to the capsizing after loss of leg D. the calculations are carried out in still water without the effect of anchor forces, wind, waves and current; including the effect of anchor forces and wind over-turning moment.
That study was undertaken by stepwise filling of the deck structure and trunks in legs C and E. Calculations of the stability and floating position in the various phases are made. Study of the survival capabilities of a Pentagone rig after loss of one of the legs with particular emphasis on possible equilibrium by ballast redistribution.
Evaluation of present stability criteria in light of the accident. Note that the special attention was drawn to damage stability criteria. Present survival criteria deal only with "low impact" damage, and the consequences of "higher impact" damage might be very serious for most of the offshore rigs that are in service today...
 The collection of all activities during the STAB 2006 that was held in Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil, in 2006. It is presented as the small program which requires no installation; it allows to navigate through the structure of the STAB conferences and access all documents.
Among the key points of the subject conference there were IMO and weather criteria, workshop on safety of offshore floating units, naval architecture and stability, probabilistic approaches, fundamental aspects of parametric resonance and parametric resonance in realistic seaway, numerical and physical modeling for parametric resonance, environmental modeling, stability of high speed vehicles and naval vessels, maneuvering in waves, nonlinear dynamics, intact stability and ship motions, damage stability for passenger and naval vessels, ship survivability, risk-based approaches to damage stability, rules and standards, behavior of the damaged vessel and progressive flooding, accidents investigations, stabilizing systems, safety in operations, water on deck etc.
Taking into account the technical freshness and actuality of the materials included into this set of papers, we would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to stay duly updated with the latest technical developments in the field of ship stability.
 The book is containing the most interesting materials - proceedings of the Eleventh STAB. With a history of more than forty years, these conferences and associated workshops on ship stability are the main meeting points for the recognized and world respected maritime industry professionals and researchers interested in the important problems of stability of marine vessels. Subject conferences are based on completely refereed contributions.
Among the declared objectives of the STAB conferences there is promotion of the exchanges of new ideas and successful methodologies that address the stability of the vessels as well as any other marine vehicles, providing today's naval architects, ship stability researchers as well as ship owners, operators and consultants, certifying and inspection authorities with the opportunities to discuss, present and be kept duly updated with the latest developments in the assessment of ship stability as applied to all sizes and types of floating objects, i.e. ships, platforms etc.
This compendium will be of great use to any person interested in the contemporary problems of ship stability; in addition, it shall be considered a very good supplement to the theoretical studies of the future naval architects and shipbuilders.
|