Wingship

The wingship was invented in antiquity, when primitive Nar first developed square-rigged sailing vessels. The name is nothing more than a product of the language of the age; "wing" was their word for "sail".

Thousands of years ago, Nar shipwrights began to use the indigenous Mountain Oak to lay keel, allowing for galleys of prodigious size. This led first to raiding, then to the Nar conquest of the mainland, which had ironically been settled by their own ancestors.

These ships led the Nar to come into conflict with early Verian vessels. At first, the Nar were readily outmaneuvered by the faster sailing ships, but they learned to incorporate the technologies of the Verian ships into their own designs. The first three-masted, fully square-rigged ship was built over 800 years ago. Ships with five sails were built as early as 500 years ago.

Naval technology progressed slowly thereafter, since there was little coast unconquered that the Nar could hope to take from the second Indigan Empire, and they could not operate so far from their shores as to conquer the southern coast.

With the rise of the Empire, a sudden and dramatic need for new technology arose. The stolen tools and techniques of Imperial artifice allowed the Nar to harness the qualities of Starwood, an ubiquitous tree that proved extremely resilient for its low weight, and too small for a ship's keel without the aid of magical fabrication.

In an endless series of naval engagements with the Empire, the Nar learned to refine their craft even further. A manpower shortage led them to increase crew efficiency, to the point where 7 men could easily man a 100 foot ship. The need to outmaneuver similarly-sized Imperial ships by sailing where they cannot led to the retractable keel.

Today, the free Nar islands are safe behind a curtain of wingships, but it may only be a matter of time before the Empire catches up with their technology.

The modern wingship relies on several major technologies.

Dynamic Rigging

The most striking feature of a wingship is its rigging. The masts are freestanding, anchored to the hull on bearings, with no stays. Each mast has 3-5 yards in a fixed position, with a camber of 12%. The sails are set between the yards in such a way that when deployed there are no gaps to the sail plan enabling each spar?s sail plan to work as a single sail.

Under normal operation, the sails can be operated entirely from below deck. The masts are rotated by hand; gearworks magnify the force, allowing a single man to power the rotation. A strong man can rotate such a mast 45 degrees in as little as 30 seconds. Under sail, the operation requires at least two men. One mans a release lever which allows the mast to be rotated; this lever must be carefully set to resist the effect of the wind on the sail, which no man could possibly resist with the rotation crank alone. With no sail or wind, the lever can be fully opened without manning, and a single can turn the crank.

Most amazingly, the sails themselves can be furled into the mast. The masts are hollow tubes containing a series of shafts and cables. A complex gear system at the base allows the crew to furl or unfurl the sails on each yard by manual cranking action. This requires 4 men, though conceivably two very strong men could do it alone. The men set an interlock which determines which sail to unfurl, then rotate a capstan. This turns a shaft which drives the furling or unfurling process.

It typically takes the team about one minute to unfurl one sail, though it could probably be done in half the time. A fifth man typically directs the action, watching to ensure the sail isn't snagged. Rushing the job could lead to jams or even damage to the internal mechanisms, which is extremely difficult to fix out of drydock.

In an emergency, the sails can also be operated manually. Minimal rigging exists to allow sailors to climb the masts. The internal furling mechanism can be disengaged at the mast, and the sails manually drawn into the desired position. This is not preferred, since reengaging the mechanism can be difficult and time-consuming process, and if the vessel is under sail, it may be traveling at speeds making any work in the rigging highly dangerous.

The masts have such freedom of motion that all points of sail can be achieved without the aid of any additional rigging. This taken together with the curved yards, low windage and effective single piece sail combine to give the rig improved aerodynamic efficiency compared to a traditional square rigger. It is quite agile even at a close haul.

Planing Hull

The starwood of which the primary hull is built is so lightweight that only about three-quarters of the hull is submerged under normal load. This reduces drag from the water, at a cost to stability; the keel|canting keel] takes care of the latter.

The hull is shaped like a wedge, so that it cuts through the water rather than resting in it. As the ship's speed increases, the force of the water against the wedge causes the ship to lift out of the water. Thus, the drag is reduced as fast as it would normally increase due to rising speed. At very high speeds, almost the entire front half of the ship can be seen lifting out of the water. Operating the ship at such speed is extremely dangerous; generally the sails are adjusted to reduce the lift effect. (See [#operation|Operation]).

Canting Keel

The latest feature to be added to the wingship is the canting keel. A marvel of technology combining master craftsmanship with highly advanced artifice, the canting keel drastically increases the stability of the ship at high speed.

Earlier designs featured a daggerboard or centreboard to allow the wingship to slip through shallower waters than any similar-sized Imperial vessel. The canting keel retains the advantage of these designs, and improves upon them by adding movable ballast.

The canting keel contains heavy ballast at its end; the ballast assembly fits into a slot at the bottom of the hull when the keel is fully retracted, acting as a shallow centreboard. When retracted, the fin is within the ship, and the entire assembly is rigid, locked to the hull.

When the keel is fully extended, a second assembly snaps into place. The fin is mounted on heavy bearings within this assembly. Crewmen attach thick control rods to the assembly, and secure them to metal arches. A gear system is mounted onto the assembly, which allows the keel to be controlled by a wheel on the quarterdeck.

The process of extending and retracting the keel is quite possibly the most difficult task the crew must perform under normal operations. It is generally done only under ideal circumstances, where current and wind are both light, and not at great odds. Everything on the ship is secured, and all moveable load, hold and crew, is balanced. The ship is stable enough under retracted keel, but for the first moments of the transition, the sudden loss of stability can topple the ship if the necessary precautions aren't taken.

Once the keel is fully extended and secure, it can be pivoted by means of a wheel on the quarterdeck. By swinging the keel windward, the ballast can counter the heeling effect of the wind, righting the ship and increasing stability. This allows for much higher speeds than could be safely achieved with a centreboard or fin keel.

The sail-plan of a wingship is different from most square-riggers. It is simpler in that all that typically needs to be adjusted for different wind conditions is the amount of sail and the tack, and that can all be done by relatively few sailors in rapid time.