Page 12 - Practical Ship Design

1x

Preface

During the years spent writing this book, I have become very conscious of how
rapidly ships are developing and how fast the rules governing their construction
and operation are changing.
I have also come to appreciate that although I can justifiably claim to have a
particularly wide experience of ship design covering many ship types, my know-
ledge of specific subjects lacks the depth that an expert whose interest is limited to
one or two subjects can be expected to have in his speciality.
Reading and re-reading IMO and DTI rules, appropriate parts of LLoyds rules,
books on naval architecture and many technical papers and magazines has helped
considerably, but the simplification and drastic condensation of some very lengthy
and complex rules to the precis form which is the essence of this book was not an
easy task and it seemed quite likely that there might be some errors.
I therefore asked a number of friends and former colleagues to read a chapter or
two on subjects in which they had particular expertise. Suggestions from these
readers have undoubtedly eliminated a number of errors and have also resulted in
many improvements and I would like to acknowledge my very sincere thanks to all
of them.
Former colleagues from YARD who helped in this way include Jack Bowes,
Richard Benson, George Davison, John Jack, Andrew Kerr, Andrew Macgregor,
Graeme Mackie, Richard Simpson and Bob Tait.
Friends who brought their expertise to bear include Alan Armstrong, a Director
of Denholm Ship Management; Dr. Christopher Grigson, a distinguished hydro-
dynamicist and author of many technical papers on ship resistance and propulsion;
David Moor, formerly Superintendent of Vickers Experimental Tank and the author
of many technical papers which I have used extensively both in design work and in
writing this book; John Sadden, Chief Naval Architect of Yarrow Shipbuilders. A
number of others whose help was greatly appreciated asked to remain anonymous.