Analysis of Technical Properties of Small Passenger Ships in the Mediterranean Sea with Overview of Future Market Needs – Environmental and Comfort Issues

Abstract

Coastal shipping is nowadays a very important research topic, where the em-phasis is mainly on the improvement of ship energy efficiency (reduction of fuel consumption) and its environmental performance. In line with this, the ship design procedure is being more complicated aiming to offer competitive products with high level of comfort for both crew and passengers, low operative costs and minimum environmental footprint. This paper reviews the technical properties of existing small passenger vessels in countries in the Mediterranean and future market needs for these vessels considering more stringent habitability criteria and future emission reduction targets. It represents an important step of a novel design procedure for small passenger vessels for Mediterranean, based on the modular principle. Analysis of technical properties of existing small passenger vessels has been made from data avail-able in the IHS Fairplay database. Beside overview of design requirements related to ship environmental friendliness and comfort, available countermeasures are reviewed.