A design procedure for a ship with minimum total resistance was developed using a numerical optimization method called SQP(Sequential Quadratic Programming) and a CFD technique based on the Rankine source panel method with the nonlinear free surface boundary conditions. During the whole optimization process the geometry of the hull shape was represented based on the NURBS(Non-uniform rational B-spline) technique and the modification of the hull shape was controlled using the Bell-shaped distribution function to keep the fairness of the hull shape before and after the hull modification. The numerical analysis was carried out using 4000TEU container ship in the towing tank facility installed in the Pusan national university to know the validity of the developed algorithm for this study. As the results of the numerical analysis it proved that the resistance of the optimized hull is conspicuously reduced in comparison with the original hull in a wave-making resistance point of view.