280 crew Frigate with only 250 crew?

[JTW]

So like the topic suggests, i'm interested in how well a 280 frigate like the Belle Poule would fare with only 250 crew. I played the Mercury earlier with 120 out of 135 crew, and found that it still worked well enough. What do you guys think? Should i go with the Surprise instead or try to use one of the 280 frigates?

[Mirones]

you can allways get a basic extra hammoks that would giv you atleast 1% wich in this case brings you to 278 crew

[marcmb]

Im wondering about it too. Should i sail frigate on 250 or stay with surprise at 240. Ill try a frigate when i rank up( 3k xp left). Also do you guys prefer belle poulle or standard frigate ? What are the diffrences ? Someone can craft a decent frigate at dutch provinces ?

Edited January 30, 2016 by marcmb

[LeeUK]

250 out of 280 crew would put you at about 89-90% Crew, this is passable in PvE the last I looked into it, BUT, I would avoid PvP. Any half decent PvPer will see your rank and know you're under crewing it and will look to reduce your crew even further and perhaps capture you or just out right destroy you.

[Nathaniel]

It should be pretty much the same crew penalty as you had on the Mercury, so if you found that ok, you will find this passable too.