[Vehicles/Spaceships] Sails & Steam Donkeys
 

Some sailing ships had steam donkeys to power winches for the sails, in order to reduce the crew requirement.

I've decided that having powered winches halves the crew requirement. In Spaceships, I can simply say that this uses auxillary power.

I also like to use Vehicles though, and I'm wondering roughly what kW power would be required of the steam engine. Say, per square feet of sail.

Looking at real-world ships, sail area isn't too hard to find. The Preussen has 73,000 sq ft. for example. However Wikipedia just says the ship had "two donkey boilers" - I don't know the horsepower or kW.

Any ideas?

Re: [Vehicles/Spaceships] Sails & Steam Donkeys
 

In Ve2 you could use a man for (I think)0.15 kw of energy in a muscle engine. Take the number of men you're replacing and get a steam engine that produces an equal value.

Re: [Vehicles/Spaceships] Sails & Steam Donkeys
 

I was thinking of that. My guesses for Preussen are that it has 30 sailors that work the sails (Wikipedia says 37 to 42 sailors total). With watchkeeping, this is 10 sailors per watch. Without the steam donkey, this would be 20 sailors.

Given an average sailor ST of 12, this is 2.4 kW.

Steam donkeys used in the logging industry were about 60 kW, so I thought ship boilers would be comparable. Of course, the ship boiler is running the rudders too.

Re: [Vehicles/Spaceships] Sails & Steam Donkeys
 

Ship boilers varied greatly. An individual manufacturer might have standard sizes for small ones, but trying to read across from a different industry will be misleading.