[3e] Cutty Sark

[Phaelen Bleux]

Cutty Sark (TL5)
The last of the merchant tea clippers, the Cutty Sark was built in 1869 expressly to outrace the Thermopylae in the highly competitive tea trade from China to London. Although she fared well, she was taken out of the tea races in 1890, and was then used for wool transport under the command of Captain Richard Woodget. She could travel from Australia to Britain in as little as 67 days. As the steamship replaced the clipper, she was sold to the Portugese firm of Ferreira. She was renamed the Ferreria, but her crews referred to her as Pequena Camisola ("little shirt": the literal translation of the Scottish "cutty sark"). In 1916 she was rerigged as a barquentine for use in Cape Town. She was returned to her original form in 1922 to serve as a training ship in Kent, and eventually put into dry dock as a museum ship in Greenwich.
The hull is a wrought iron frame covered with wooden planking.

Subassemblies: Body with Average lines +9, one 130' Mast +3, one 145' Mast +3, one 110' Mast +3.
Powertrain: 24,704 sf of Full-rigged Cloth Sails.
Occupancy: Up to 16 in cabins, up to 19 in bunks. Minimum crew is 1 driver + 5 sailors.
Cargo: 92,100 cf

Armor: 3/10W overall

Body: Navigation instruments, 8 cabins, 19 bunks, galley, 1,050 man-days provisions. On Deck: Capstan (4,800-lb. winch with 6-man muscle engine), 42-cf ship's boat (12'x5'x1'), primitive controls.

Statistics:
Size: 280'x36'x145' Payload: 931 tons Lwt.: 1,134 tons
Volume: 131,255 cf. Maint.: 47 hours Price: $183,342

HT: 7. HPs: 23,244 Body, 437 Foremast; 544 Mainmast, 313 Mizzenmast.

wSpeed: 20 wAccel: 0.4 wDecel: 0.2 wMR: 0.02 wSR: 5
Draft: 21'. Flotation Rating: 3,413 tons.

Design Notes:
Structure is Medium, with Standard materials. Waterproofed. Armor is DR 10 Standard Wood. The volume of the armor is figured into the design, as per the rules on p. VEii5. Body volume was determined using the Builder's Old Measurement with a length on deck of 212' and a beam of 36'. This matched a conversion of tonnage (921 tons) to cubic meters (2,608 m3) fairly well (92,062 cf). The higher value from the BOM was used to accommodate more carrying capacity. Features "On Deck" are not included in the Body volume. Accommodations are a guess. Design draft was 10.5'; the actual draft is shown. Design wSpeed was 18.3 mph; the historical value is shown.

[Gef]

The worst thing about 4e is that it abandons the wonderful vehicle design rules.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Gef

The worst thing about 4e is that it abandons the wonderful vehicle design rules.

I dunno about "abandons", but the Vehicle Design System has been in and out of playtest at least twice since 4e was first implemented. I think that it's boiled down to "vehicles are too varied for a single book to handle."

Spaceships helps in one respect, but it doesn't help with designing the example spy-car "Kitty Hawk" from 3e's Vehicles.

[sgtcallistan]

Tragically, the Cutty Sark was mostly destroyed in a fire in 2008.

There are plans to rebuild it on the still-existing metal frame...

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Gef

The worst thing about 4e is that it abandons the wonderful vehicle design rules.

Are you talking about the same vehicle design rules that caused writers to run away in panic if a vehicle was required in their work. thereby changing or killing a writing project?

[jason taylor]

There is a legend that naming a merchantman with to grandiose of a name is tempting fate. Apparently warships and passenger liners are exempt from this.

The funny thing is that Cutty Sark(girl's underskirt) was the only clipper not given a grandiose name. And the only one to survive into the twentieth century. Go figure.

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Are you talking about the same vehicle design rules that caused writers to run away in panic if a vehicle was required in their work. thereby changing or killing a writing project?

The very same. Yes, I am aware of the drawbacks, but iI liked the results I got once I invested the effort. -GEF

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Are you talking about the same vehicle design rules that caused writers to run away in panic if a vehicle was required in their work. thereby changing or killing a writing project?

I owned Vehicles for over a decade without really cracking the cover. But really, with a minimum of investment, the system is just pretty much spot-on. I think the biggest flaws are with ships (specifically volume and draft, which I have gotten around with the discovery of the Builder's Old Measure and simply doubling design draft) and simply the front-end learning curve. But after that, every time I design a vehicle it's like a little Christmas present to have the Design Speed match the Real-World speed!!

And once you've mastered Vehicles, Robots is a breeze.

[Phaelen Bleux]

After posting this, I discovered the Extended Full-Rig (used by tea clippers specifically) in Vehicles Expansion 1. This brings sail area to 29,654 sf and boosts design wSpeed to 19.5 and wAccel to 0.5.

Huzzah!!

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Phaelen Bleux

it's like a little Christmas present to have the Design Speed match the Real-World speed!!

I used it for near-future designs, and I loved the way it yielded believable improvements over real-world vehicles for equivalent cost, or equal capabilities with reduced cost.