Above-Water Hull

The above-water hull is the part of a vessel’s hull shell sitting above the load waterline, from the waterline up to the weather deck edge; it includes the topsides, sheerstrake, and freeboard region. Surveyors inspect it for shell-plating wastage, fracture, and coating breakdown without docking, unlike the underwater hull. Its vertical extent is the freeboard, the distance from the assigned load line to the freeboard deck under the International Convention on Load Lines 1966. The above-water hull provides reserve buoyancy and resists down-flooding in a seaway.