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DESIGN OF A 4-PASSENGER COST EFFICIENT 27
COMMERCIAL VESSEL

3. Design Phase

3.1 Requirements

In the beginning of the design process of vessel, requirements must be determined. Unlike the
existing vessels, capacity is constrained by 4 passengers, less than any other alternative. Urban
citizens are forced to act alone due to nowadays’ present routine. This lifestyle, inevitably
influences how they travel in the city. Hanson and Giuliano indicated that on roads more than
90% of the urbanites drive alone and this level keeps rising every year [4]. Clearly, this data
shows the transformation of our transportation habits. Because of this reason and failure of sea
transportation in Istanbul, nearly 20% of capacity usage and downgrading trend of this data,
indicates to set the capacity of the vessel to 4 passengers. By this limitation, being an alternative
between private and mass transportation, land taxis were targeted. From this point of view, the
vessel must have less initial and running costs than the current alternatives. Additionally, the
vessel should have flexibility to access almost every coastal region for taking an advantage in
front of strict routed mass transportation alternatives. Moreover, it has to reach a certain speed
as the time spent in the vessel probably will be the primary feature for passengers.

3.2 Concept and Preliminary Design

According to the requirements, the hull form was chosen as a planning body with a chine and
the main dimensions are 6.50 m in length, 2.45 m in breath, 0.44 m draft with 2.40 t
displacement.

Neufert’s Architect’s Data was used in terms of ergonomics [5]. On this basis, passengers'
seating plan was planned as 2 rows and 2 columns. In front of passengers, captain’s area was
located with a seat and a control panel in front of her/him. Bicycle and luggage zone was
located on port aft of the vessel. In face of that zone, handicapped area was located with 1.2
meters along the ship length for providing enough space for a wheelchair. Main entrance located
at abaft with 1.2 meters width with a 0.9 meters long platform. Gangway was designed to be
adjustable sloped to integrate every different freeboard value of ports, thus has 1 meter width for
ergonomics. This element designed to be powered either with manpower by ropes which are
lied through entrance sides in bars or with electrical motor supplied by batteries. Moreover,
seats were designed to provide maximum comfort for passengers. For this reason seat
dimensions was selected as; width 620 mm, pitch 1350 mm. Also, height of accommodation
zone was chosen 2000 mm for a comfortable inside volume. Captain’s deck 110 mm lower than
main deck to provide 2000 mm height for that reason his/her seat selected as elevation
controlled to provide maximum view angle.

Upper structure of the vessel was designed depending on Conformité Européenne’s (CE) related
regulation [6]. Therefore minimum window opening was raised 600 mm from gunwale. Fiber-
reinforced plastic material was selected for upper structure because of its physical properties
and low weight. Besides, glasses on superstructure kept as much as possible for a natural
atmosphere and vision. Lastly, entrances are also designed taking into consideration the related
regulations of CE and The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) [6,7]. Main entrance,
which located aft of the vessel, has sliding doors for easy entrance and exit. The height of the
door is 1.9 meters for ergonomic and structural needs. Additionally, an emergency exit was
located in front of the control panel which is positioned fore-end of the vessel. The general
arrangement is given in Figure 1.

Sayı 4, 2015 GiDB|DERGi