Trimming boat up for more range

bert8for3 · 01-19-08, 08:46 AM

Out on patrol for 21 days now, and down to about 1/3 fuel remaining, I've only expended two torpedoes on a couple of targets very early on in the patrol. Since then, nothing except two fast transports that I couldn't catch. So I need to stay out a good while longer.
I'm about 1500 km from base at Lorient in a VIIB, and with knot indicator set for 9 knots (clicked on halfway between the 9 and 10 marks), and in calm or pretty near calm weather (so speed on setting was 9 knots), my navigator was reporting about 4500 km range remaining (average, i.e. asking him several times over several minutes 'cause he never gives the same answer).
I guess I could drop my speed down and get considerably more range, but I wanted to see if I can squeeze out more range and still maintain a decent cruise speed to sweep a bigger area for targets. So I did a little experimenting and found that if I drop the knot setting to 8 knots (clicking halfway between the 8 and 9 marks), and trim the boat higher by clicking 3 or 4 metres on the depth gauge, as opposed to running on default "S" draft, I get an additional knot of speed (9 knots), but the range projection boosts considerably to about 6000 km. So depending on the weather I'll be able to stay out longer.
I haven't tested this in different weather conditions yet. Also, I don't know if this was done in RL, but to my own idea of realism (everyone's being different) perhaps they had to sometimes. BTW, it doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference on dive time.

01-19-08, 08:46 AM	#1
bert8for3 Ace of the Deep Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 1,124 Downloads: 110 Uploads: 0	Trimming boat up for more range Out on patrol for 21 days now, and down to about 1/3 fuel remaining, I've only expended two torpedoes on a couple of targets very early on in the patrol. Since then, nothing except two fast transports that I couldn't catch. So I need to stay out a good while longer. I'm about 1500 km from base at Lorient in a VIIB, and with knot indicator set for 9 knots (clicked on halfway between the 9 and 10 marks), and in calm or pretty near calm weather (so speed on setting was 9 knots), my navigator was reporting about 4500 km range remaining (average, i.e. asking him several times over several minutes 'cause he never gives the same answer). I guess I could drop my speed down and get considerably more range, but I wanted to see if I can squeeze out more range and still maintain a decent cruise speed to sweep a bigger area for targets. So I did a little experimenting and found that if I drop the knot setting to 8 knots (clicking halfway between the 8 and 9 marks), and trim the boat higher by clicking 3 or 4 metres on the depth gauge, as opposed to running on default "S" draft, I get an additional knot of speed (9 knots), but the range projection boosts considerably to about 6000 km. So depending on the weather I'll be able to stay out longer. I haven't tested this in different weather conditions yet. Also, I don't know if this was done in RL, but to my own idea of realism (everyone's being different) perhaps they had to sometimes. BTW, it doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference on dive time.