Ships with assigned reduced freeboards intended to carry deck cargo ( Regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention and SOLAS regulation II-1/25-1, footnote)
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - International Conventions - Load Lines, 1966/1988 - International Convention on Load Lines, 1966, as Amended by the Protocol of 1988 - Unified Interpretations of the Provisions of the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966 - Ships with assigned reduced freeboards intended to carry deck cargo (Regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention and SOLAS regulation II-1/25-1, footnote)

Ships with assigned reduced freeboards intended to carry deck cargo ( Regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention and SOLAS regulation II-1/25-1, footnote)

 This unified interpretation pertains to ships assigned reduced freeboards in accordance with regulation 27 of the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966 (1966 LL Convention) and intended to carry deck cargo.

 In subparagraph .6 of the footnote to SOLAS regulation II-1/25-1, ships shown to comply with regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention as applied in compliance with IMO resolutions A.320(IX) and A.514(13), may be excluded from the application of SOLAS chapter II-1 part B-1.

 The footnote accepts the deterministic damage stability analysis according to the load line regulations in lieu of the probabilistic method of SOLAS chapter II-1 part B-1. This was considered an acceptable substitution because of the very conservative assumptions of the initial load case made in the deterministic calculation under regulation 27(7) of the 1966 LL Convention. This can only be presumed for bulk carriers where the cargo is carried solely within the cargo holds, but may not always be true for bulk carriers which may occasionally also carry deck cargo, or other cargo ships intended for carriage of deck cargo which have been designed to take advantage of a reduced freeboard assignment.

 Therefore, for such ships damage stability calculations should be carried out as follows:

  • .1 due to the assigned reduced freeboards, in compliance with the damage stability requirements of regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention and the 1988 LL Protocol; and

  • .2 due to the intended deck cargo capacity, the limiting GM or KG curve required by SOLAS regulation II-1/25-8 should be provided to the master for guidance, based on compliance with the probabilistic damage stability analysis of SOLAS chapter II-1 part B-1.

 The KG used for demonstrating compliance with the deterministic damage stability requirements of regulation 27 of the 1966 LL Convention should be the same as that used for the probabilistic damage stability calculations required by SOLAS chapter II-1 part B-1, at the deepest subdivision load line.


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