In past years an extensive and experimental investigation was carried out in the Lagoon of Venice and at the University of Trieste on behalf of the Town Administration of Venice, to classify the lagoon motorboats and define the specific navigation rules in Venice and in its lagoon, as regards the wave pattern generation and potential wash damage. Twenty five boats were tested on full scale and fifteen models were built and tested in resistance experiments, in two different load conditions and, for some models, the investigation was extended also to the direct wave-making calculation. Some models were tested also in shallow water.
A preliminary result given by this investigation is a verification of the existing criteria for the classification of the existing boats as for their potential environmental damage, calculated by taking into account the wave generated heights and the residual and the wave resistance components. The investigation then suggested the need of defining new lines for some classes of boats.
