In this article we apply a finite element method for approximating the geometrical deformation of a two dimensional incompressible fluid body the flow velocity of which is not constrained along its top boundary. As a pressure force is applied on the free boundary, the domain occupied by the fluid deforms. There are several well established methods for treating this type of problem. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the computational efficiency of a number domain-mapping methods, which are akin to many solid mechanical applications involving large deformations, in that they employ a mapping of the initial configuration range onto the current. However, in fluid dynamical applications the deformation of the fluid body may be very large and contain several vortices. When employing domain-mapping methods, the spatial representations of the element domains are attached to the motion, and the Lagrange formulation is therefore inadequate. Instead we wish to find a motion which minimizes the element deformations and the computational complexity of the problem, while satisfying the kinematic constraint along the boundaries.