CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.0 GENERAL OVERVIEWThough the maritime industry is setting a broad exposure in ship designing through advanced technologies and varying simulation software, the research seems to be never ending in producing finer and optimized design of the vessels. When most of the vessels in the maritime industry are dominated by the conventional mono hull design with distinguishing shapes for desired commercial purposes there is always space available for multihull vessels when stability and hydrodynamic performance are considered as the main criteria for rapid express dent of the high-speed ship market in the past decade, multi-hulls are considered as the best option to be used in naval and recreational purposes where performance of the vessel could have a profound effect. Hydrodynamic performance is an important aspect to be taken into consideration as it has direct impact on the operational costs. So, at an early stage a designer need to be aware of finding the best possible method which determines or sets a compromise between vessel shape and operational costs to get the desired performance. Though the theoretical approach of hull resistance is complex in nature, it seems economically feasible when compared to model test evaluation.