Careening

[ShiverMyTimber]

We all know that pirates hold ports but many a pirate ship (and some other nations, far from a safe port) would have their ship essentially beached on a shore where at low tide the ship's lower hull would be accessible for repair, naturally some shores were best suited to this and other shores were useless and you'd end up completely stuck, run aground if you tried to careen.

So what I propose is that if you are far from a friendly port and need your ship fixed and just so happen to come across an island you can careen your ship and order your crew to gather the required materials needed for repair. Essentially making it a free repair. Naturally this could be exploited so only the smaller classes of ships (probably up to a frigate) could be careened and as well as that it will take time (depending on repairs needed) you would also have the option to send a scouting party out on the Island in case there are any natives who might see you as lunch if you set half your crew on repairs and attack your ship. Scouting should take approximately fifteen minutes and your scouting party can either return completely healthy, with casualties (from hostile animals or native inhabitants) or not return at all, a sure sign that they've died and you should probably make sail with haste. You could choose to repair your ship if your scouting party knows where the native encampment is, however there would still be a chance of them attacking, which would be a lot like boarding mechanics, as for hostile animals; having your scouting party collect the necessary materials nearest the shore under guard with fires lit to scare off the animals, though if your scouting party missed cannibal natives the smoke could draw them towards you.

So a quick recap

• Careening is where you purposely beach the ship at low tide to exact repairs when there is no port or the nearest is far, far away.
• You would be able to careen on many of the islands with shores but no ports dotted around the map
• It would be a free (but time consuming, based on the damage and size of ship being careened) way to repair a ship at sea
• It is not without risk, the island may be inhabited with cannibals or dangerous animals, you would have the option to send out a scouting party, or just exact quick repairs and hope you don't come under attack losing many crew (and potentially having your ship set alight if you lose) in the process
• Repairs shouldn't be as good as a drydock. 85% hull maximum should be repaired and this would be with a skilled carpenter onboard.

[Destraex]

It would be nice to catch a pirate careening.

[Blackjack Symons]

I voted yes, but to be honest... I feel as though it'll be a rarely used feature. You're able to use repair kits at sea and more often than not people have enough to repair adequately (though it is cheaper to go into port). On the odd occasion that I am nowhere near a neutral or friendly port, I suppose careening might be necessary, but I doubt it. It's a nice idea, but at present it doesn't seem to add very much. That said, I did vote yes.

[Destraex]

I still think careening is something that you can pay for now and again to get speed back up. The problem is simulating the time penalty because the ship would need to be out of action for a few days.

[maturin]

No point careening unless all our ships start growing weeds.

Of course, it would be interesting to delete 9/10 of pirate ports and then let them repair or trade on the fly like that.

[AKPyrate]

So, essentially do what ship repairs do at sea already... No thanks, just man up and stock up on the repair kits.

 

Also, careening could only be done on certain beaches and was extremely risky in the case of storms coming in.  You could loose the whole ship that way, or be stranded for up to a month if you chose the wrong tide to careen on.  And, most importantly as stated above, we already have repair kits.  Careening would be redundant and a minimal savings of money/time.

[Brigand]

Of interest: Protecting your underwater hull: Cleaning, graving and sheeting.

 

Cheers,

Brigand