The model ship of this study, the Baek-Kyung fisheries training ship of Pukyong National University, has a length between perpendiculars of 85 meters, making it not subject to the IMO maneuverability standards. However, understanding the maneuvering characteristics of the vessel is essential for safe navigation. In this regard, this study was conducted to analyze the results from the sea trials of the model ship conducted in accordance with the IMO maneuverability standards. The results of the turning tests met the standards well while in the zig-zag tests, the first overshoot angle exceeded the standard in the 10°/10° test; however, such results met with a difference of 1.8° in the 20°/20° test. Additionally, using the course-stability discrimination formula, the calculated value was -0.0051, indicating unstable course-stability. The results of the stopping tests met the standards well. It is hoped that the analyzed maneuvering characteristics of the model ship from the study results will contribute to the safety of ship navigation.

Recently, universities of fisheries and institutions related to fisheries are actively carrying out a project to build new fisheries training ships. These new fisheries training ships are significantly larger in size and longer in length than the previous ships. In addition, these new ships basically have space that can accommodate more than 100 crew and passenger. On the other hand, they are excluded from IMO maneuverability evaluation since the size of these ships are still less than 100 m in length (LBP). These results have had an impact on the study of maneuverability of fishing vessels including the fisheries training ships. Against these backgrounds, the authors conducted a study to estimate the maneuvering characteristics of fisheries training ship Baek-Kyung according to depth in order to prepare a maneuvering characteristic index that enables the large fisheries training ships to navigate more safely using a modified empirical formula. It was confirmed that the maneuvering characteristics of Baek-Kyung changed significantly as the values of the hydrodynamic force coefficients changed as the water depth gradually decreased from around 1.5 (approx. 8 m in depth) of the ratio of the water depth to the ship draft. The results of this study will not only help navigators understand the maneuvering characteristics of Baek-Kyung, but also serve as an indicator when navigating in shallow water. In addition, the accumulation of these results will serve as a basis for future study on maneuverability of fishing vessel types.

Most fishing vessels are less than 100 m in length (LBP), which is not mandatory for the IMO standards for ship maneuverability. Therefore, research on estimating the maneuverability of fishing vessel hull shapes are somewhat lacking compared to that of merchant ship hull shapes, and at the design stage, the numerical simulation method developed for merchant ships are applied without modification to estimate the maneuverability. Since this can cause estimation errors, the authors have derived a modified empirical formula that can improve the accuracy of estimating the maneuverability of fishing vessels in a previous study. In this study, using the modified empirical formula, the IMO maneuverability evaluation items, the turning motion test and Z-test simulations were performed on the fisheries training vessel BAEK-KYUNG and compared with the sea trial test result to verify the validity of the modified empirical formula. In conclusion, the modified empirical formula was able to estimate quantitatively and qualitatively similar to the result of the sea trial test. Such a study on estimating the maneuverability of fishing vessels will be a good indicator for fishing vessel operators and will help them analyze marine accidents.