Abstract
The article presents the experiment’s results of the lifeboat model lowered with an initial speed and then released to fall onto a flat water surface. The purpose of the research is to determine the trajectory of the vertical boat motion and describe it with a mathematical model. This is closely related to determining the damping factor since the vertical motion is damped and the lifeboat gets balanced and stops moving after some time. The procedure of selecting parameters in the mathematical model to adjust to the results of the experiment was described in details. The summary describes the imperfections of the presented damping model and their probable causes.