Sloop

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A sloop is a type of ship, the smallest available. As the easiest ship to crew and run, as well as the cheapest, it enjoys widespread use, both everyday and in events.

Other classes
In addition to the basic sloop, the following classes of sloop exist:

Alternate design

 * Cursed class sloop - Available since June 2011; requires a design for construction
 * Gold class sloop - Available since April 2012; requires a design for construction
 * Rogue class sloop - Available since March 2010; requires a design for construction

Limited edition

 * Alice class sloop - Limited edition; available during July/August 2013
 * Ancient class sloop - Limited edition; available during September 2011
 * Bardic class sloop - Limited edition; available during March 2012
 * Blizzard class sloop - Limited edition; available during January/February 2014
 * Casino class sloop - Limited edition; available during June 2012
 * Celestial class sloop - Limited edition; available during November/December 2013
 * Chocolate class sloop - Limited edition; available during Feburary 2012
 * Cupid class sloop - Limited edition; available during February 2011
 * Dream class sloop - Limited edition; available during March 2014
 * Emerald class sloop - Limited edition; available during March 2010
 * Frost class sloop - Limited edition; available during December 2009
 * Gingerbread class sloop - Limited edition; available during December 2011
 * Gunpowder class sloop - Limited edition; available during November 2012
 * Harvest class sloop - Limited edition; available during November 2010
 * Hunter class sloop - Limited edition; available during January 2013
 * Inferno class sloop - Limited edition; available during June 2010
 * Lagoon class sloop - Limited edition; available during July 2011
 * Midas class sloop - Limited edition; available during August 2010
 * Phantom class sloop - Limited edition; available during October 2010
 * Roister class sloop - Limited edition; available during September/October 2013
 * Serpent class sloop - Limited edition; available during February 2013
 * Skelly class sloop - Limited edition; available during October 2012
 * Smuggler class sloop - Limited edition; available during July 2012
 * Steam class sloop - Limited edition; available during May 2012
 * Tiburon class sloop - Limited edition; available during August 2012
 * Valkyrie class sloop - Limited edition; available during March 2013
 * Vampire class sloop - Limited edition; available during September 2012
 * Verdant class sloop - Limited edition; available during April 2011

Rooms and furnishings
A sloop has three scenes: The main deck, the main hold, and the crow's nest.

The total paint required to recolor a sloop is 131 units.

Pillaging
The sloop is the mainstay of pillaging pirates everywhere. New officers benefit from the sloop's small, easier-to-manage crew and maneuverability, while old salts can use the small crew requirement to finely tune the ship's might rating.

Blockade use
Due to their fragility, sloops have very limited use in real blockades. When a buoy or two are far separated from large point clusters (and the large ships contesting them), a sloop can occasionally claim points for at least a few rounds. In this situation, though, a dhow or fanchuan is usually preferred. Since the sloop does not influence any tile except the one it occupies, if it is to contest points, its location will always be known. This, coupled with its fragility, leads to a sloop either sinking or becoming irrelevant to the blockade score in short order.

With only three crew necessary for influence, however, they are often used in event blockades. (On subscriber oceans this many pirates aboard must be subscribers.) There, they give many more people the chance to navigate in a blockade setting. Even before the advent of coded event blockades, sloops were used in blockade-board games such as Bumper Sloops and Ketchy cubby.

Historical notes
The ship now known as the sloop was at one point called a small sloop, while a cutter was called a large sloop. Eventually the cutter was given a more distinctive name and the "small" prefix was dropped from the name of its little sister.