Keels

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

#### 4.3.2.3: Keels

A keel is a longitudinal plate projecting downward from the center bottom of the boat. Made of heavy iron, it provides ballast and stability, and is essential equipment for ships that will be attempting ocean crossings. With sufficient keel, a ship will have a much-improved chance to survive the powerful storms of the open ocean.

Each unit of hull may mount one unit of keel. For example, a 3 unit hull could mount up to 3 units of keel.

Adding keel to a ship requires the Add Keel [1090] skill. Each unit of keel added to a ship requires 1 iron [79], 10 workers and takes 5 days. To add keel to a ship, the shipbuilder should enter the ship and issue the order:

      use 1090

At the conclusion of the command, a new unit of keel will be added to the ship.

To remove keel from a ship, the shipbuild should enter the ship and issue the order:

      use 1092

Removing keel requires 10 workers.

Due to the keel's heavy weight, each unit of keel added to a hull reduces the capacity by 100 units weight.

Keel protects a ship against storm damage. Ships caught in a coastal storm have the following chance of sustaining damage:

      (15 - (units keel / unit hull) * 30)%

Thus a ship with at least one keel per two units of hull will (under normal circumstances) be immune to damage from coastal storms.

Ships caught in open ocean storms have the following chance of sustaining damage:

      (35 - (units keel / unit hull) * 30)%

Even a fully keeled ship (one unit of keel per unit of hull) still risks a 5% chance of damage in an open ocean storm.

The storm's strength determines how much damage it will cause. A storm of strength "n" will do 1-n points of damage to a ship, although no storm will do more than 50 points damage to a ship in one blow. Multiple storms in a province act as one storm with strength equal to the sum of the strengths of all the storms. Only rain storms cause ship damage.

Keels also protect a ship from reef damage. Reef damage can occur when a ship sails along the coast, particularly if the coast is rocky (i.e., mountainous). There is a 1 in 75 chance per day that a ship is in a coast province that it will sustain 3 to 5 points of damage. This chance goes up to 1 in 50 to sustain 6 to 10 points of damage if the coast is rocky. Reef damage to a ship is reduced by (units keel / units hull)%. A fully keeled ship will not be damaged by reefs.