Motion compensating ship personnel transfer gangway - GIF

[Frank S]

Loose crtl, you are absolutely correct even the simplest form of ballast weight transfer can go wrong at the most inopportune time. the transfer of fuel or water from side to side as ballast is about the simplest there is in larger vessels. Smaller pleasure or racing yachts the crew becomes the ballast. Try forcing yourself to hang over the rails in 20 ft seas on a 40 ft yacht while the captain desperately ties to maintain head way He can't even drop the mainsail because the the throat halyard and gaff are fouled If he could somehow manage to drop it to half mast then the lower portion could be lashed and the remaining would be about the size of a storm sail about the only thing you can hope for is that the peak halyard holds because once it goes the gaff will drop on 1 end and you loose all control.
All of the human ballast is fighting to hang on to scared to be sick. About this time the top sail shears away then suddenly the halyards are free and you manage to lower the main sail to quarter mast get everything lashed now it is just a matter of being able to hold steerage into the waves everything is peachy.
As human ballast you swear never to crew on one of these death traps again.