LONGITUDINAL STABILITY

RESPONSE IN THE FWD/AFT DIRECTION

The Longitudinal Centre of Floatation (LCF)
Centre of gravity water-plane area of a ship.

For small angles of trim, consecutive water-

lines pass through LCF.

The position of LCF, is given as a distance in

metres(m) fwd or aft of amidships.
 LCF

LCF

Longitudinal centre of floatation

The Longitudinal Centre of Buoyancy (LCB)
Longitudinal centre of the immersed volume of a ship.
The position is usually given as a distance forward or
aft of midships.

LCB
Longitudinal Metacentre, BML
As the ship is inclined through a small
angle the shape of the water plane changes
to W1L1. This will result in a movement of
the centroid from B to B1

By using a ships profile as an example it is

easy to explain Longitudinal BM.
 As with transverse stability G and B must
always be in the same vertical line.

The point at which the line G1B1 intersects

the original line GB is called M, The
Metacentre.

BML is the vertical distance between M and

B.
From the sketch above, it is easy to see that the
longitudinal GM is the distance between G and M.

In reality M is so high that a negative GM is not

going to occur unless the vessel has already started
to sink due to transverse stability errors.
Change of Trim
Trim is inclination of a vessel in the forward/aft
direction.
When a vessel is sitting with the water-line parallel to
the keel, it is said to be floating at an even keel.
When the draught at the stern is higher than the
draught at the bow, a vessel is said to be trimmed by
the stern.
When the draught at the bow is higher than the
draught at stern a vessel is said to be trimmed by the
bow.