Basically increased displacement of a vessel has a effect on speed. As a example ice boats can sail up to five times the speed of the wind. Ship drag is reduced traveling over the ice vs traveling in water, along with additional lift which can be provided by the sails. Increasing a ships displacement in water or a ship traveling deeper in the water, requires more water needing to be pushed out of the way due to the increase in displacement. Increased resistance and friction on a ship moving through the water are the resulting forces in play here. Without additional sail volume or additional sails designed to promote lift to compensate the forces in play, ship speed will be reduced.
In PG game ships add Iron Scantling for defensive purposes, this additional iron weight increases the displacement of similar designed ships in the water when compared to non Iron Scatling ships. The additional displacement allows the forces at play to decrease the speed of the Iron Scating equipped ship through the water vs non equipped ships. Without changes to sails, these Iron Scatling equipped ships are slower than their counterparts due to the additional weight added. Cargo as well affects performance. Sails can compensate somewhat for the increased speed decrease due to the increase in displacement, however in game there is no provision for this.
Not having a sail maker in PG is paramount to playing a auto racing game without mechanical, motor, chassis, tire, adjustments. Sail maker was a offered addition here in the form when the various elements of the new academy were discussed. Rather than induce more realistic ship battles in PG based on speed and other ship weight factors, the game decided random battle results and equality performance in sea battles is preferred. The game continued to create more land based activity and lost a huge opportunity to stimulate and grow both player development, along with interest in competitive at sea battles.
How are those farm fields doing? growing good?