Summary of Fishing Vessel Safety Sea Trials Conducted October to November 2004

As part of the Fishing Vessel Safety Project, the objective of this project was to acquire full-scale motions data on fishing vessels. The data will be used to validate both the physical model methodology and numerical simulation models currently under development. The long-term objective of the research program is to develop a set of tools that can evaluate the number of Motion Induced Interrupts (MII) caused by sudden ship motion and the impact this has on crew accidents. Ultimately the goal is to develop criteria to reduce MIIs.This document describes the three fishing vessels, the trials organization procedure, the instrumentation package, data acquisition system, test program, data analysis procedure, discusses the difficulties associated with this type of trial, and offers suggestions for improving future trials.Collaborators involved in the fishing vessel sea trials include the Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT), Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), Oceanic Consulting Corp. (OCC), Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), the Offshore Safety and Survival Centre (OSSC) of the Marine Institute and SafetyNet ? a Community Research Alliance on Health and Safety in Marine and Coastal Work. Primary financial support for the project is provided from federal funding sources including the Search & Rescue (SAR), New Initiatives Fund (NIF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health and Research (CIHR) in addition to significant in-kind contributions from the many participants.NRC publication: Ye