Abstract
In this paper, we try to study optimum ship routes by simulations. The main purposes of studies are to investigate the effect of wave prediction to the optimum route and to compare a few optimum routes which have different criterion functions. We used Dynamic Programming for the optimization and 16200G/T container ship was selected as a model ship. The wave data were taken from actual daily wave charts of December in 1977. The main results from simulations are as follows. 1. The tracks of minimum time routes may vary widely and rapidly with the daily changes of wave pattern. 2. A practical weather routing is possible if we can get accurate wave prediction having the first one-third period of the time enroute and optimum route is recalculated every day. 3. Minimum fuel consumption route has approximately the same track as minimum time route.
