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20MNMarch 2012 equivalences in dealing with issues in the classification of ships. Class rules are general rules and GPA several times provided solutions to situations where in order to comply with the rule, it may overdesign or under- design a vessel. We all have to under- stand that the class rulebook is not a design manual, but a standard and the Naval Architect should use his/her engineering knowledge and skills in applying those standards and designing the proper vessel. If you had to point to just one hot trend in Naval Architecture and design today, what would that be and why?Hot trend is a misleading state- ment. Hot trend can be something that is popular and chic or can be agun to your head that is forcing you to come up with an answer. I would like to use the gun to the head. It is more appropriate to our profession. It is very difficult to just choose one because each type of vessel or opera- tion has a hot trend. If we look at a common denomina- tor that can be applicable to almost allof the types, it is environmental requirements. It would be finding ways of making the vessels more envi- ronmentally friendly with the least amount of investment. I consider this a hot trend because regulations are going to be dictated and enforced that are going to create more prob- lems than what they are going to solve, because of the available present technology. I am not saying that I am against saving the environment. Yes, I agree that we need to do something about it, but the problem is that there is not a practical technology available at this moment that can be perma-nent or permanent enough thatwould allow us to develop better and more practical ways to deal with it. I am referring here to the emission part of the environmental requirements. I am very concerned that we are going to regulate ourselves to a point that it would be prohibitive to operate. All the available technologies at this moment are a temporary, expensive solution to what we are trying to achieve and if we do not do them in a careful way, we can waste a lot more than what we are trying to save. There is still a lot that can be done with our present proven technology and the design of ships. We can improve on all of them and get very good results with the least amount of INSIGHTSMN#3 (18-31):MN 2011 Layouts 3/2/2012 9:23 AM Page 20