Since most merchant vessels are mainly influenced by the added resistance in an actual sea, they could be navigated more efficiently if this added resistance could be precisely predicted and then effectively reduced. In this paper, we have computed the effective horsepower based on the resistance performance in still water and then calculated the added resistance in regular wave in order to estimate a ship's propulsion performance on a voyage. Firstly, we have performed experiments using a model of KCS in a circulating water channel to estimate the flow characteristics around a container ship and the ship's resistance in still water. Then we have calculated the motion response function in regular wave as well as the values for the increase in resistance, and evaluated the ship's motion performance in waves according to the calculated response function. It was found that the resistance in waves increased because the ship's motion response value became larger as the ship's speed increased in the case of head sea. The effect of the added resistance could be reduced by maneuvering the ship to the encounter angle of 120˚ in areas of long wavelengths and to head sea in areas of short wavelengths.