[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by skirich

That leaves me with another question. Is it wise to leave a few births open when leaving a base or leave with a full compliment of crew?

i do.
in no particular order:
one typically does not need more than 1 seaman on duty for each section in the Sensor compartment.
check your equipment load and chances are there is no need to have crew assigned to the conning tower.
some boats have 8 or 9 crew assigned to each engine room section. probably don't need that many.
the damage control crew varies by mod and boat and there are two philosophies for its use. one says fill the DC with full-time crew and the the second says use the Deck Watch crew as DC because the boat will probably be submerged when you take damage and need to effect repairs.

there are probably more suggestions, but it is stormy outside and i ache so this is all i can think of at the moment.
good luck and good hunting!