In the highly structured process of ship design, many technical, financial, and practical factors must be balanced. Concept design, preliminary design, and contract design are the three main phases that a ship's design goes through, according to D.J. Eyres in Ship Construction. Let's examine these phases and their roles in the shipbuilding process as a whole. 1. Concept Design: Laying the Foundation The designer converts the project's goals into a feasible outline during the concept design stage. Building a ship that satisfies the requirements of its eventual owner, whether for commercial, military, or specialized purposes, is the main goal of this stage. Enough details are included in the concept design to perform a rudimentary techno-economic analysis of the various options. This enables the designer and interested parties to assess elements such as: Net present value (NPV) Discounted cash flow Required freight rate Particularly for commercial ships, these economic metric...