Naval rhinoplasty

   While Germanischer Lloyd (GL) noted “a complete hull design will without doubt achieve much more substantial fuel savings,” shipowners may be able to achieve significant fuel savings by changing the nose of their ships.
   “An optimized bulbous bow section still offers rather attractive potential fuel efficiency gains, especially for large, high-powered containerships,” which the German classification society said now frequently slow steam.
   GL said achievable savings from bulbous bow modification are frequently underestimated even by experts.
   It described how its FutureShip affiliate, a leader in hull optimization, uses state-of-the-art computer technology to modify hull designs.
   For the owner of a fleet of 13,000-TEU ships, Futureship was able to use computer models to identify two optimal hull shapes from roughly 20,000 bow variations that were investigated. One model showed possible gains of 11 percent, equivalent to annual fuel savings of about 3.5 percent under real-life operating conditions.