Depowering sails

[Jean Ribault]

I am not a sailor.  Can one of you sailor types explain how NA simulates depowering?  What is the game actually modeling when you tap "T", and is there anything more for a player to do to make it more effective ?  Any responses appreciated, no matter how sarcastic.  But seriously, I'm not sure exactly what the game is doing there.

[Jarlath Morrow]

When you press "T" to depower, your crew reefs the staysails. Simply put, you want to depower anytime you don't want acceleration from your triangular sails. This is easier said than done but with experience it will be easy.

The possibilities are probably endless but I can think of a few useful examples.

In terms of sailing:

Except for running straight downwind and pointing dead into the wind, your staysails are always providing significant acceleration. You can really notice this at beam reach and even more at close-hauled - as your square sails start to be less effective heading upwind, a bigger share of the sailing force comes from the staysails.

So long as your ship doesn't slow down to the point that its rudder starts to be less effective, depowering at the right times allows you to pull off tighter turns, both tacking and wearing.

In terms of gunnery:

Especially at points near beam reach, the force from both types of sails causes your ship to heel. If you are taking an elevated shot to windward, this heel can be beneficial. However, if you are aiming low to windward or high to leeward, this heel might make your shot impossible.

Depowering halts the wind pressure on the staysails - this allows you to quickly and easily limit heeling. Reducing the heel coming from the square sails is another matter, and requires you to reduce sail and/or turn the yards.

In terms of self-defense:

In PVP fights, players will try to damage your rigging.

Depowering will reef the staysails, hiding them from taking damage from cannon balls and chain-shot.

Because of heeling, all ships are vulnerable to leaks on their windward side (shots below the waterline that let water into the ship). Having a leaking ship is not a fun experience, and ranges from inconvenient to deadly.

Depowering when a windward enemy fires on you protects from leaks.

 

[JobaSet]

8 minutes ago, Jean Ribault said:

I am not a sailor.  Can one of you sailor types explain how NA simulates depowering?  What is the game actually modeling when you tap "T", and is there anything more for a player to do to make it more effective ?  Any responses appreciated, no matter how sarcastic.  But seriously, I'm not sure exactly what the game is doing there.

It removes the power of the wind from sails.  Slows you down some and evens the boat so you are not leaning or healing so much, Helps you turn a little.  If your using it to slow down your doing it wrong fastest way to slow down is to turn sails into wind direction

[Jean Ribault]

Thanks guys, great thorough answers, much appreciated.  Hope all that good stuff is in the tutorials too.