ABSTRACT: The paper describes new directions in which the safety of navigation in Pomeranian Bay (Poland) became into a new era since the LNG Terminal in port of Świnoujście begun to attend to a large gas tankers at around 320 meters length, 50 meters breadth, and draught of 12.5 meters. For the safety of naviga-tion in Pomeranian Bay, the Maritime Administration has modified the traffic regulations, directing the ship's traffic to the zones outside the main approaching channel. For some of the ships navigating in to Świnoujście the new regulations mean the necessity of passing the shallow waters, with all consequences of that. The most important effect, being predominating in shallow waters, it is the squat effect. This effect is causing the ship's speed reduction and the increase of fuel consumption. It is very difficult to select the influence of the squat effect from others, like weather conditions, waves high and direction, and sea keeping qualities for ships of different type. This paper is giving the contribution to deep analysis of the above, and is presenting the test results done for passenger/cargo Ferries, travelling as per regular service to the port of Świnoujście: M/F "Gryf" and M/F "Wolin".

KEYWORDS: Safety at Sea, Ship Handling, Port of Swinoujscie, Ferry, Shallow Water, Pomeranian Bay, Safety Measures, Hydrodynamic Effects

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