Shipping water, the flow washing over and impacting the upper decks of ships and offshore structures, occurs frequently during their service life and often causes structural problems. For engineers to design safe floating structures subjected to shipping water it is essential to gain an in-depth understanding of its depth and flow field, and the resulting impact forces. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is applied to understand the physics of shipping water washing over a stepped platform. We find that the most accurate solutions are obtained with the k−ε turbulence closure. The hydrodynamic load generated by the shipping water is found to strongly depends on the kinematic energy of the water hitting the step. It is shown that with smaller values of the freeboard a more dynamic flow ensues, with a stronger vortex and larger velocity gradient resulting in deeper shipping water and a larger impact force.