Objectives  With the increasing exploitation of the Arctic abundant oil and gas resources, a large number of ships which meet the polar navigational requirements are needed.

  Methods  In this paper, the fast elitist Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA Ⅱ) is applied to the hull optimization, and the multi-objective optimization method of polar vessel design is proposed. With the optimization goal of resistance and icebreaking resistance, filtering hull forms through the standard of polar vessel displacement and EEDI, fast ship hull optimization that satisfy the ice-ship dead weight and EEDI requirements has been achieved. Taking a 65 000 t shuttle tanker as an example, full parametric modeling method is adopted, the hull optimization of three different bow forms is conducted through the polar vessel multi-objective optimization method.

  Results  The ship hull after optimization can satisfy the IA class navigation require, where the resistance in calm water decreases up to 12.94%, and the minimum propulsion power in ice field has a 27.36% reduction.

  Conclusions  The feasibility and validity of the NSGA Ⅱ applying in polar vessel design is verified.