The method is discussed in:

"Ship Resistance and Propulsion: Practical Estimation of Ship Propulsive Power" by Molland et al.

I think what's most interesting for is Table 10.2, where the parameter ranges the method is based on are listed. For convenience, I've copied the figures for you.

Ship type, Fr max, CP, L/B

Tankers and bulk carriers, 0.24, 0.73-0.85, 5.1–7.1

General cargo, 0.30, 0.58-0.72, 5.3-8.0

Fishing vessels, tugs, 0.38, 0.55-0.65, 3.9-6.3

Container ships, frigates, 0.45, 0.55-0.67, 6.0-9.5

Moreover, you'll find a very good overview on empirical methods for resistance prediction. This may help you a lot in order to choose a good working model for you problem.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. This book is really quite interesting and might assist me a lot.

Kind regards.

Since inland ships typically have a higher block coefficient, larger L/B ratios and larger B/T ratios than seagoing ships, the method by Holtrop (1977, 1978, 1984) and Holtrop and Mennen (1982) is not by definition suitable for inland ships. However, the method is believed to provide a reasonable approximation of inland vessels resistance because it relies heavily on relatively detailed knowledge of the hull form. For lack better alternative, some researchers have used this method for inland vessels and achieved acceptable results.

On the other hand, Holtrop, Mennen and Van Terwisga published in 1990 a similar method aimed at estimating the resistance of barges.

More information may be found in the paper "Design guidelines and empirical evaluation tools for inland ships" from ROTTEVEEL, HEKKENBERG and LIU, published in the European Inland Waterway Navigation Conference (2014).

Thank you for sharing your final conclusions on this topic!