Sea State, Vessel Depth, Freeboard

Hi,

How to connect the sea state and vessel depth or freeboard for a particular route? Is there any minimum freeboard for a sea state? Is it okay only to consider the minimum wave height from the range of a particular sea state?

 

The sea state is dictated by the route the vessel will take during its normal day to day voyage.
That sea state will then dictate, what freeboard will be considered "acceptable". Do you want the vessel to slam and take on green water frequently, or not?
So that in turn dictates the vessel's depth.

That's it in a nut shell.

 

Just to add to Ad Hoc comments.

For most vessels greater than 24m/150 gross tons
The Load Line and its associated freeboard will be assigned IAW the International Load Line Convention.

For all vessels it is prudent to do a forefoot slamming and motion analysis for the designed route. This is discussed in depth in Vol 3 of Hydrodynamics of Ship Design Part 4, Chapters 65 and 66
https://archive.org/details/hydrodynamicsins5765saun/page/n15/mode/2up