Bucketeers Glossary

People who work in shipbucket scale, often get a lot of comments containing words not commonly found in the english language or even words meaning different things when applied to ships and ship design. This page is created by Acelanceloet to provide a reference for such words. This article will provide an explanation of words describing ships dimensions (both real and relative), ship shapes, ship stability etc. It is allowed and even encouraged to improve, add to and expand these explanations. Definitions too complicated to fit in a few sentences deserve their own articles in the future, which will be linked from this page.

Dimensions

Length over all

Abbreviated as L_OA

The length from extreme bow to extreme stern of the hull of a ship.

Length on Waterline

Abbreviated as L_WL

The length of a ship on the design waterline.

Length between perpendiculars

Abbreviated as L_PP

The length of a ship between fore perpendicular and aft perpendicular

Aft Perpendicular

Abbreviated as A.P.

Depending on the ships design, either

• The aftmost side of the rudder post
• The centerline of the rudder stock if there is no rudder post

ships with unusual stern shapes normally don't use the "perpendicular" description. If they do though, it either follows a 'rule length' or is the aft end of the design waterline.

Fore Perpendicular

Abbreviated as F.P.

The point where the bow of a ship enters the water when at design draft, fore end of the design waterline

Beam

Abbreviated as B

The greatest width of a ship, measured in the inner shell.

Largest Beam

Abbreviated as B_MAX

The greatest width of a ship, including shell thickness.

Depth

Abbreviated as D

The distance between the top of the keel to the top of the deck beam at side of the uppermost continuous deck, measured amidships. (= 0,5*L_WL)

Draft

Abbreviated as T

The greatest distance between keel and waterline at a load condition. If just the draft is given, this is design draft.

Draft over all

Abbreviated as T_OA

The distance between the waterline and the lowest point of the ship.

Displacement

Abbreviated as Δ

The volume of water a ship "displaces" when it's total weight is in the water. Equal to Volume * density of the water. Displacement in meters is equal to the ships weight in metric tons.

Equal to Volume when the ship is in fresh water (density = 1t/m³)

Volume

Abbreviated as ∇

The volume of a ship below the design waterline.

Coefficients

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