BRS Lei Zi

In Chinese Mythology, Lei zi, the wife of Lei Gong (雷公), was the Goddess of Lightning, using flashing mirrors to send lightning across the sky. She is one of five gods that work together to produce storms.

As a ship, Lei Zi is fast. Her slender shape slices through the water propelled by her powerful Chinese Lug rig. Like many ships used in Asia, she is shallow drafted to deal with the conditions found along the coast and up the rivers of China. To compensate she has both an (off) centre board and a rudder that drops deep beneath her hull, harnessing the waves to steer a true course.

Forward, she has two bow chasers like most ships. These are then backed by six broadside guns arranged three per side. Far back on her stern are another pair of guns placed as stern chasers to discourage enemy ships from following too closely.

A "Junk" style ship like most found throughout Asia at the time, she is very seaworthy with watertight compartments throughout the hull, sails that can be easily lowered and reefed (but not in game) if the wind pipes up, and a fenestrated rudder that can be lifted clear of the water for dealing with shallow harbors and intentional groundings.

1. As an ten gun class ship, she has 24 HPs between victory and defeat

2. Lei Zii has the maximum number of guns allowed for her class, but with two of them on the stern, she can defend herself from any quarter.

3. The baskets on deck are for the gunners to sit on. These will put the gunner between the guns where they can use the SL camera controls to view their target. Make sure the gunner sits on the Lid of the basket, not the body of it.

4. 40 degrees is the absolute closest this ship can sail into the wind, anything closer and she will fall off into "irons" and slow to a vulnerable halt. You will then need to kedge to get out of this fragile predicament.

5. The centre board works similar to the square sails on Western Ships. With it lowered she can get close to wind. With it raised up, she will drift backwards at anything less than 75 degrees, but move faster at anything above.

6. . With the new Camera system in place, your initial view will be just forward of your AVI's head. You will need to "scroll" the view your mouse to change this. The on screen Camera controls will not allow you to do this and will turn the camera up towards the rigging if you do. The ESC will reset the view back towards the bow of the ship, but will not change the distance you set it at.

6. There are two version of Lei Zi in the basket. The regular "full figured" ship in all her fighting glory and a "moored" version that lacks the sails and scripts. This version will look nice at the dock while not taking up precious script time.