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The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of creating a prototype of a self-sufficient houseboat that is capable of prolonged independence from power grids and freshwater sources. In this design, electricity demand is met by a photovoltaic installation, and the energy is stored in batteries. Fresh water for living needs may be obtained from many sources, depending on the environmental conditions, such as through purifying outboard water, desalinating seawater, and collecting and storing rainwater. No waste production of the vessel can be achieved in two ways: waste can be treated and discharged into a body of water, or processed into fertiliser for later use in agriculture. Four possible locations were analysed: Rome, Lisbon, Gdańsk and Stockholm. The findings reveal that the length of time for which the unit is autonomous and emission-free depends on the geographical location of the facility. In periods when there is overproduction of energy, the system can produce hydrogen, donate energy to the grid, use it for the needs of its own movement, or perform other useful work, e.g. cleaning or aerating the water body on which it is floating.

A sailing yacht is a human-centred product, the design of which revolves primarily around the wants and desires of the future owner. In most cases, these preferences are not measurable, such as a personal aesthetic feeling, or a need for comfort, speed, safety etc. The aims of this paper are to demonstrate that these preferences can be classified and represented numerically, and to show that they are correlated with the type of yacht owned. As a case study, the owner’s preferences for deck equipment are considered. These are determined by pairwise comparisons of the importance rankings for features previously defined by yacht owners, following the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. As a result, a quantitative representation of these preferences is established, and they are shown to be correlated with the type of yacht. The findings of the current study show that the yacht owners’ preferences can be represented numerically, leading to a utilitarian conclusion that concerns the support and even some degree of automation of the design process.

In the field of ocean engineering, the task of spatial hull modelling is one of the most complicated problems in ship design. This study presents a procedure applied as a generative approach to the design problems for the hull geometry of small vessels using elements of concurrent design with multi-criteria optimisation processes. Based upon widely available commercial software, an algorithm for the mathematical formulation of the boundary conditions, the data flow during processing and formulae for the optimisation processes are developed. As an example of the application of this novel approach, the results for the hull design of a sailing yacht are presented.

Recently, there has been a significant development of ecological propulsion systems, which is in line with the general trend of environmentally friendly “green shipping”. The main aim is to build a safe, low-energy passenger ship with a highly efficient, emission-free propulsion system. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. The article presents the main problems encountered by designers and constructors already at the stage of designing the unit. The research conducted made it possible to create a design with an effective shape of the hull, with the prospect of an energy-efficient and safe propulsion system with good manoeuvrability. The scope of the research included towing tank tests, recalculation of the results in full-scale objects and a prediction of the energy demand of the propulsion system. The results obtained were compared to indicate power supply variants depending on the hull shape.

The increase of seakeeping performance is of particular importance for car and passenger ferries, service ships in the gas and oil extraction industry and offshore wind power farm industry, as well as for special purpose ships (including military applications). In the water areas of the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea, which are characterised by a short and steep wave, the hull shape has a substantial impact on the operational capacity and propulsion efficiency of the ship, as well as on comfort and safety of navigation. The article analyses selected aspects of seakeeping for four variants of a selected case study vessel, indicating practical limitations of the strip method. The analysed aspects included hull heaving and pitching, added resistance, Motion Thickness Indicator (MSI), and Subjective Magnitude (SM). Experimental tests were also performed in the towing tank. Their comparison with the numerical results has indicated high inaccuracy of the strip method. What is more, the simplified representation of hull shape used in the strip method makes it impossible to analyse the effect of hull shape changes on the predicted seakeeping characteristics. Especially for the case of head wave, neglecting highly non-linear phenomena, such as slamming or head wave breaking, in strip method-based computer simulations will significantly decrease the reliability of the obtained results. When using the strip method, the seakeeping analysis should be complemented with model tests in a towing tank, or by another more complex numerical analysis, such as CFD for instance.

The paper presents a framework for optimising a sailing yacht rig using Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms and for filtering obtained solutions by means of a Multi-criteria Decision Making method. A Bermuda sloop with discontinuous rig is taken under consideration as a model rig configuration. It has been decomposed into its elements and described by a set of control parameters to form a responsive model which can be used for optimisation purposes. Considering the contradictory nature of real optimisation objectives, a multi-objective approach has been chosen to address this issue. Once the optimisation process is over, a Multi-criteria Decision Making method based on a w-dominance relation is applied for filtering out the most interesting solutions from the obtained Pareto set. The proposed method has been implemented, and selected results are provided and discussed.

Usually, the concept of sufficient stability of a floating structure is connected with the capacity to keep a small heel angle despite the moment of heeling. The variable responsible for these characteristics is the initial metacentric height, which is the relation between the hydrostatic features of the pontoon and the mass properties of the entire object. This article answers the questions of how heavy the floating system should be, what the minimum acceptable draft is, and whether it is beneficial to use internal fixed ballast. To cover various technologies, a theoretical model of a cuboid float with average density representing different construction materials was analysed. The results indicate that the common practice of using heavy and deep floating systems is not always reasonable. In the case of floating buildings, which, unlike ships, can be exploited only under small heel angles, the shape and width of the submerged part of the object may influence the stability more than the weight or draft.

In the paper selected approximate methods for calculation of inland waterways ship resistance and their verification by towing tests, compared on the example of a small urban ferry, are presented. The test results are made for both the bare hull and the hull with appendages (skeg, azimuthal propeller). Significant differences between results of the theoretical methods and experimental ones, especially in the case of the model with skegs and propulsion, are pointed out. The purposefulness of using several parametric methods and the use of average results at the preliminary design stage were also discussed.

Ship designing is a complex process, as the ship itself is a complex, technical multi-level object which operates in the air/water boundary environment and is exposed to the action of many different external and internal factors resulting from the adopted technical solutions, type of operation, and environmental conditions. A traditional ship design process consists of a series of subsequent multistage iterations, which gradually increase the design identification level. The paper presents problems related to the design of a small untypical vessel with the aid of variant methodology making use of optimisation algorithms. The computer-aided design methodology has been developed which does not need permanent reference to already built real ships and empirical-statistical relations. Possibilities were indicated for integrating together early design stages, and parallel designing of hull shape and parameters.

Dynamic development in practically all fields of science and engineering has not passed over shipbuilding. In last years, engineers got to their use computer software which makes it possible to perform strength and hydrodynamic calculations as well as to visualize design projects in 3 D space [1-4]. At their disposal they have full spectrum of modern solutions associated with the use of advanced materials and technologies [5-7]. More and more attention is also paid to impact onto the natural environment [8,9]. Every new object must influence the environment as low as possible, beginning from building phase through its service life up to final utilization - such approach is called „green-shipping“. However, not only practical reasons are important. Clients, i.e. ship owners and passengers of ships paid more and more attention to image of floating units. During decision taking on that from whom a transport service has to be ordered, the most modern ships of an attractive image matching with place and time, are often taken into consideration.