C-Job Naval Architects, a naval architecture company committed to developing sustainable ship designs, received a request from the coastal tourist agency IJmuidense Rondvaart to study the feasibility of a Sustainable Fast Ferry for Commuters concept design. This passenger-only ferry is featured by operating at high speeds (22 knots) between the metropolitan areas of IJmuiden and Amsterdam, being completely zero-harmful-emission and carrying a maximum of 40 commuters and 15 bicycles.

Based on the high levels of traffic congestion reported in the historical center of Amsterdam, the City of Amsterdam announced in its policy Traffic and Transport the implementation of more ferry services in the IJ waterway as one of the measures to battle this issue. In addition and considering the negatives effects of traffic congestion with regards to the concentration of air pollution, the City of Amsterdam also aims to establish zero-emission areas within the city between 2020 and 2030 as part of the measures announced in the policy Clean air.

Therefore, the necessity of a zero-emission ferry service within the Amsterdam area to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution exists. In order to achieve a feasible design, a Systems Engineering approach was applied. This methodology provides a solid base and structure to manage the constraints and complexity that a zero-emission design involves, highly related to weight and range.

Thus, an initial analysis of the applicable current technology was carried out. This analysis allowed to determine and examine the most effective technology to achieve a feasible design. In addition to examine the available technology, previous sustainable ferry designs were studied as well in order to observe the limitations, challenges and solutions taken by other ferry designs.

Considering the challenges observed from previous designs and the examination of the current technology, different candidate systems were explored. From this exploration three systems highlighted as the most suitable, in which Model 18 was the selected candidate system for being capable of meeting the weight and volume requirements as well as for standing out because of the greater sustainability and lower costs.

Lastly, a more detail description of the characteristics of this model was given. This description indicated the general arrangement showing the lay-out of the different compartments, analyzed the stability performance of the hull design and made a simplified study of the economical feasibility, in which the minimum fare to cover OPEX was determined and compared with the competition. Moreover, an estimation of the approximated payback period was performed too.

Overall, this feasibility study proved that a technical feasible design is achievable and, depending on the acceptability by the public opinion, i.e. operational capacity, an economical feasibility might be also possible.