Brittany Ferries celebrates keel-laying ceremony for LNG ferry

Heike Billerbeck, head of ship theory and hydrodynamics at FSG, the German shipyard at which Honfleur is being built, said: “Technology has transformed the way we design hulls.

“Over the last 20 to 30 years we’ve reduced wave resistance by between a third and a half.”

Billerbeck and her team reportedly took approximately three months to create a digital model of the vessel’s hull, and carried out tests using computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software. This enabled the team to visualise both the size and angle of the bow wave, as well as the wake that the ship will create. In addition to this, they also created animations of how the vessel will perform in heavy seas, as well as calculating exactly how much power it will need to sail at a given speed, ensuring it meets efficiency targets set by Brittany Ferries.

Brice Robinson, Brittany Ferries naval architect, said: “Passengers will never see Honfleur’s hull, but they will certainly feel its benefit.

“Think of your car. It has been designed to slip through the air as cleanly as possible to maximise its fuel efficiency. The hull of a ship is just the same. It’s just a question of hydrodynamics rather than aerodynamics.”

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