There is a fourth area which is apparently missing namely:- Improvement in the prevention of water reaching the vehicle deck in the event of damage occurring in realistic seagoing conditions. The latter area is as important as the other three and logically should precede them. It should be emphasised that this Formal Investigation is into the disaster to the HERALD and into possible means of improving the safety and survivability of Ro-Ro passenger ferries. In this context Task 1 should concentrate on Ro-Ro passenger ferries. It is essential that all calculations, including those for residual stability and freeboard, should be in the context of a range of initial trims. It is considered that the tests should impose statutory damage through portable side plates in the superstructure located at, say, midships and near the quarter points. The model should then be ballasted so that (a) the waterline is at the margin in way of the ‘damage’ location for any given distance between margin line and bulkhead deck. (b) that the metacentric height is adjusted to be alternatively 0.05 m or 0.10 m; and (c) finally, that the vessel be tested statically on a number of headings in irregular sea conditions using a suitable spectrum with a range of significant waveheights. Finally, no target date for the completion of a model test programme is given. It is of considerable importance that this be as soon as physically possible in view of the need to consider the effects of the results upon ferry design. It is essential that the research programme convince Government and the Public that its conclusions are objective and at arm’s length from purely commercial considerations. In particular, the merit rating mentioned in 2.4.4. and 2.5.3 of the programme, requires clarification as to its nature. Is it, for example, to be an operator’s assessment of least possible inconvenience or is it to apply strictly to the safety of the vessel or will it be based upon an objective combination of these and other aspects?