An innovative design methodology considering the simulation of the operational life of a ship is presented, including weather factors and off-design floating conditions. Different methods and data are integrated within a simulation software to achieve this. Advanced numerical methods, mainly Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), are used for the analysis of the hydrodynamic performance of the ship in calm water and waves. An application example is shown and results are discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.