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A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Large ships with bulbous bows generally have twelve to fifteen percent better fuel efficiency than similar vessels without them. A bulbous bow also increases the buoyancy of the forward part and hence reduces the pitching of the ship to a small degree.
Vessels with high kinetic energy, which is proportional to mass and the square of the velocity, benefit from having a bulbous bow that is designed for their operating speed; this includes vessels with high mass or a high service speed. Vessels of lower mass and those that operate at slower speeds have a reduced benefit from bulbous bows, because of the eddies that occur in those cases; examples include tugboats, powerboats, sailing vessels, and small yachts.
Bulbous bows have been found to be most effective when used on vessels that meet the following conditions: