Improving Cost and Fuel efficiency of short sea Ro-Ro vessels through more Slender Designs – a feasibility study

Abstract

Despite the political objective of decreasing road transport and transfer cargo to rail and sea, short sea shipping is struggling. There is therefore a need for development of new short sea Ro-Ro vessels which use significantly less fuel per ton transported and which can be built at a modest cost. This feasibility study has: Mapped the main characteristics of the current fleet; Investigated alternative combinations of main measurements to enable more slender hull forms to reduce power and fuel consumption per transported unit; Performed a case study to compare the economic and environmental performance of these slenderer designs with traditional designs and road only solutions. The results of this study indicate that significant fuel and cost savings can be achieved by designing and building more slender Ro-Ro vessels.