Italian for "zephyr", Zeffiro is as "light class" little ship. With no chasers and 2 cannon per side in the broadside position, she takes a fair bit of practice and skill to get the most of her. That is what I intended when I designed the class all those years ago.
From my notes: "Size: Hull is roughly 11m long and 4.25m wide. Spars and sprits are longer, but are not part of the hull. Guns: Four. Two per side. HP/Armour: should equal 14. can be a combination of armour and structure or all structure Speed: Faster than the SSS Sloop, but slower than the Gunboats Maneuverability: again, more than the sloop, but less than the gunboats. These ships will need to turn to get a good angle on the guns. Irons: should be able to sail fairly close to the wind. The Felukka can get to 36 degrees.. they will need to get close to that to escape larger vessels I basically want to make this class as being a "captain's class" where when against each other in battle, it is not a ship advantage, but the skill, experience, and cunning of the captain that determines who sinks and who stays afloat. What is open: Crew: I imagined 2. A Captain and gunner -but if you want two gunners, that is fine. Speed into and with the wind: Some ships will be faster into the wind, some faster with it. Some differences will appeal to different captains. Heeling: While dumping the leeward cannons into the brine is not encouraged, a realistic amount of heel is encouraged. I want this class to be realistic, fun, and challenging all at the same time. This is why I designed all three vessels so they would all have similar dimensions and I could guide this class to fruition."
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"Dolphin" in italian, Defino is the latest Black Rose Shipyard boat to take to the seas of Second Life. Agile, quick, and a match for the gunboat offerings from Evvva (SSS) and Amber (ATS) she is still slower than the original gunboat, the TSS Felukka. That's now I designed her.
Just to be different, I put the gun on the "other side" of the bow from her competition, opposite the offset bow sprit. Avventura was my second "released" ship. Based on the Fortuna sloop but highly modified in both hull and sail shape, this little merchant is the perfect way to be interoduced to SPD battles. Built to compete with Angelic's RSS "Ammah" it has unfortunately not developed the following that ship has. No matter, it is free and still great fun to sail around.
As it is based on the Fortuna, it is a fast little ship, but I tweaked it so it cannot sail quite as close to the wind (it is missing the Jib the Fortuna has) and she is a little slower due to the more "tubbiness" of her hull shape. If you look through the pics, you notice I inclide a "light" version for battles. I do this for all my ships. While I enjoy rigging them as close to realistic as possible, for the "light" version I strip off a lot of the details to bring the final prim number and land impact down. For some captains this can be the difference between a good fight and a crash. Fortuna was my first ship that was released to the "public". I had gotten a couple of ships through the approval process before, but neither of them ever went so far as to be sold. I was never completely happy with them. Fortuna, a small Sloop classed ship, was the first I was truely happy with. Her gestation was difficult and her birth hard, but her mom is proud of her all the more for it.
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