Hydroelastic analysis, with contemporary and well developed methodology, is capable of adequately capturing complex fluid-structure interaction related to ultra large container ships. A physical phenomenon of springing and whipping of modern container ships are commonly analyzed within hydroelastic methodology composed of three main parts, i.e. structural, hydrodynamic and hydrostatic mathematical model. In order to ensure valuable and reliable results, their proper definition is inevitable.

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... s paper deals with three current restoring stiffness formulations, consistent one with distributed ship mass, consistent one with lumped masses and complete one. Consistent formulation is based on ship hydrostatics, while complete is structurally oriented with geometric stiffness included. Formulation of the restoring stiffness via the finite element method is developed as very useful approach for practical utilization of the hydroelasticity methodology. The validity of new developed approach is checked in a case of regular barge one real life container ship.