How do onboard safety features contribute to stability?

Onboard safety features play a significant role in contributing to a vessel's stability, particularly through managing stress distribution and providing redundancy. Proper stress distribution ensures that forces acting on the vessel during operations, including external factors like waves and wind, are evenly spread throughout the structure. This helps maintain the vessel's structural integrity and prevents failures that can lead to instability.

Additionally, redundancy in safety features means having backup systems and components that can take over if the primary systems fail. This is crucial for maintaining stability because, in the event of an unexpected malfunction, having additional measures in place helps prevent a loss of control that could otherwise lead to capsizing or other dangerous situations.

While load management and lowering the center of gravity are important for stability, they are specific aspects rather than comprehensive contributions like managing stress distribution and redundancy. Simply increasing the vessel's weight does not inherently improve stability and could potentially worsen stability if it leads to a higher center of gravity or improper weight distribution. Thus, the combination of effective stress management and redundancy directly contributes to enhancing the overall stability of the vessel in various operational conditions.