The wave making generated by motorboats and speedy crafts in the canals and lagoon of Venice, due to traffic increase and to the extreme speeds of these crafts, represents a threat for the cultural and architectural heritage of the town. The Municipal Administration of Venice has set up a specific Committee, named “Committee for Wave Motion Research”, to examine the causes and to suggest possible remedies. One of the investigations promoted by the Committee was to measure the wave components, created by five boat models. These measures were performed at the D.I.N.M.A. Department of the University of Trieste and some of the results obtained are reported here. A critical analysis of these data permits a better evaluation of the wave making dangerousness of five boats.
