Preliminary study of medium-speed monohull passenger ferries

The recent development of medium-speed monohull passenger ferries has shown their importance for certain
routes. The aim of the intensive studies performed in the recent years is to fulfil the pending technical and
environmental issues concerning the HSC crafts. They operate at the Froude number range of 0.55 to 0.80
which is beyond the last hump of the wave resistance curve. In fact, they need a high power to maintain their
operation speeds. The present project is to find the best design based on the layout of the passenger
arrangement and the hull form configurations. The layout includes the seat arrangement and the distribution of
passengers at the main and upper decks. Due to the lack of design data base of those kinds of semi-planning
ships, a parent ship of 250 passengers is considered in this study. During the design process, the rules and
mandatory issues are taken into account. The results of the design parameters and general layout of a series
of parent ships are presented in this paper. The results will be applied in a future parametric study, particularly
to find the best layout and hull form with the minimum engine power.
Keywords: Ship design, general arrangement, engine power, passenger vessel