HOLDING THE WEATHER

[Cmmdre]

Holding the weather, or windward, gage conferred several important tactical advantages. The admiral holding the weather gage held the tactical initiative, able to accept battle by bearing down on his opponent or to refuse it, by remaining upwind. The fleet with the lee gage could avoid battle by withdrawing to leeward, but could not force action. Even retreating downwind could be difficult once two fleets were at close quarters because the ships risked being raked as they turned downwind. A second disadvantage of the leeward gage was that in anything more than a light wind, a sailing ship that is sailing close hauled (or beating) will heel to leeward under the pressure of the wind on its sails. The ships of a fleet on the leeward gage heel away from their opponents, exposing part of their bottoms to shot. If a ship is penetrated in an area of the hull that is normally under water, she is then in danger of taking on water or even sinking when on the other tack. This is known as "hulled between wind and water". Finally, smoke from the gunfire of the ships to windward would blow down on the fleet on the leeward gage. So it was common for battles to involve days of maneuvering as one admiral strove to take the weather gage from his opponent in order to force him to action, as at the battles of Ushant (1778), St Lucia Channel (1780) and the First of June (1794).
Only in heavy weather could the windward gage become a disadvantage, because the lower gun ports on the leeward side of a ship would be awash, preventing her from opening her lower-deck ports to use the guns – or risking being swamped if she did. So, in strong winds, a ship attacking from windward would not be able to bring her heavy lower-deck guns into action, while the enemy ship to leeward would have no such problem as the guns on her windward side would be raised by the heel. For this reason, Admiral Rodney ordered his ships to attack the Spanish from leeward in the stormy weather at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780.

Also see.
http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthre...SAILING-BASICS

[pward]

Thank you for this explanantion, like Maturin, I could never really understand the benefits of the weather gage.

[Cool Breeze]

Well written and researched Paul. Thank you.

[David Manley]

More stuff here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_t...he_Age_of_Sail

[calm]

Very useful info !!

[Naharaht]

Will the rules have a section on play in bad weather conditions? Does anyone know, please?

[Eldil]

Will the rules have a section on play in bad weather conditions? Does anyone know, please?

There are specific rules for variable wind strength (where the strength of the wind may change from turn to turn), but there are currently no rules for bad weather (rain, storm, etc).

I feel like this could be easily house-ruled, but probably more effectively by people with a better understanding of bad weather's impact on the operations of a ship of war. But here are some suggestions:

* All ships are considered to have a leak that can't be repaired (they'll need to spend at least one crew action per turn to pump the water).

* Visibility impacted: Close-range attacks draw one fewer damage counters, long-range attacks draw two fewer damage counters (tailor to your preference).

* Use the rules for variable wind strength.

Cheers,
Nate

[DeRuyter]

There are specific rules for variable wind strength (where the strength of the wind may change from turn to turn), but there are currently no rules for bad weather (rain, storm, etc).

I feel like this could be easily house-ruled, but probably more effectively by people with a better understanding of bad weather's impact on the operations of a ship of war. But here are some suggestions:

* All ships are considered to have a leak that can't be repaired (they'll need to spend at least one crew action per turn to pump the water).

* Visibility impacted: Close-range attacks draw one fewer damage counters, long-range attacks draw two fewer damage counters (tailor to your preference).

* Use the rules for variable wind strength.

Cheers,
Nate

Yes I believe variable wind strength is an optional rule and it only affects movement as written. Depending on how much detail you wanted you may want to add to or chuck the official rule and use house rules for wind strength. For experienced players I would consider wind effects on movement, gunnery and on the size of the ships. The higher the wind and sea state the less accurate gunnery would be, ie; less damage counters. Also SoL would have to close their lower deck gun ports, decreasing firepower. Smaller ships are more vulnerable to weather damage and can be run down by larger ships. Also visibility options as you note for specific scenarios.

Eric