Introduction of systematic and probabilistic safety assessment methods for the classification of high speed craft.

With the adoption of the Code of Safety for High Speed Craft (HSC) by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee, statistically based failure analysis has become a mandatory part of the certification process for high speed craft. Following a brief description of the relevant formal analysis methods this paper discusses the application of these techniques to high speed craft systems. It is argued that the effort for conducting the analyses can be offset by the benefits that are derived from a design and operational point of view. Potential difficulties in assessing failure probabilities are discussed and suggestions are made how to identify critical system elements. (A)