Terms: A Yacht is a generic term for any civilian craft that is larger than a shuttle, but smaller than a full blown ship. This includes long range interplanetary shuttles, pleasure craft, large transfer shuttles and the ilk. These craft were in plentiful supply around the colonies, in service with various transport and liner companies, and many were also used by private individuals for many purposes.

As such, a large number found their way into the hands of people whose uses for them were anything but legal, including smugglers, privateers and others of disreputable standing.

There are almost as many different types of yacht as there are yachts in service, and many owners upgraded their craft for better performance. This included weapons in many cases, although the Colonial Navy does not take a great attitude to owners arming their vessels without a very good reason.

Game Notes:

• Yachts function in much the same way as PF's do (module K), although with the obvious point that none of these were actually purpose built for combat, and thus they do not have the same performance statistics that PF's would. All normal PF rules should apply unless changed below.


• (K1.1) Energy Allocation: A yacht pays 1/3 points for life support. remember that Active Fire Control is free.
• (K1.2) Movement: A yacht has a turn mode of A, and a 1/3 movement cost.
  Tow bars (K1.25) do not exist.
• (K1.4) Shields, as usual, do not exist.
• (K1.5) Combat is basically as normal, but weapons do not have a reduced range (unless specifically noted).
Yachts may control a number of seeking weapons equalling half their sensor rating.

• (K1.6) Warp booster packs do not exist.
• (K1.7) Electronic Warfare. A yacht gets no free EW and must supply it is own.
  Ignore (K1.8) and (K1.9).
• (K2.0) PF tenders do not exist as such. There are no dedicated vessels that hold yachts, but some large vessels can accommodate them and some ships do carry them on a regular basis.
• Yachts are effectively handled as shuttles for launching and landing, and all yachts inside a ship take up one shuttle box, if the ship is capable of handling yachts. A yacht in a shuttle box may not be doubled up and can be repaired according to (K2.61) and (K2.62) only.
  Fighter boxes may not be used to hold yachts.


• Ships capable of handling yachts are listed in the ship descriptions and include (but not necessarily limited to):
  Early Heavy Carriers, Battlestars, Gunstars, Destroyers, Early Baseships, Baseships and Tiger Class Destroyers and the Battlestar Excaliber and pod.

  Other ships will have specific boxes on their SSD if they can handle yachts, and these boxes can also be used as regular shuttle boxes if desired and no yacht is present.

• While a yacht is docked within a ship, (K2.4) is in effect.
• (K5.0) is used when yachts are damaged, although the description for each yacht will state what system is damaged by WPN A, B and C hits.
  A yacht has no impulse, and these should be replaced with:

2,D: Shuttle

3,D: Cargo



• (K6.0) and (K7.0) are not used.


• While yachts are never treated as PF leaders or scouts, they do have some equipment that would not be found in normal PF's, representing their civilian function, and thus they will have cargo and shuttles as standard. They are damaged via the slightly changed DAC results (as shown above), and never via the PF leader rules.
• In boarding actions, remember that Yachts, like PF's, only have one boarding area.

The SSD's were designed and drawn by me.

The SSD's show three basic craft that are in widespread use. These should be pretty self explanatory, but you will notice that there are several weapon boxes and an option box on some of these. For vessels that are not armed and have no option mounted, then in combat these boxes should be ignored and scrubbed off the SSD. They are not free hits. Instead they represent the crafts ability to be modified and where weapons can be added, and with what arcs.

With all these modifications, the BPV of the yacht will be changed. Simply add the following to the yachts final BPV, and then round any fractions up.

Note: The initial BPV of a yacht NEVER includes any weapons, options or boarding parties!

Weapon options

The following weapons can be mounted in the weapon boxes:

Civilian ships are limited to phaser 3's only, and obviously the owner will have a wide range of permits and licenses issued from the Colonial Navy that authorises them to carry these weapons.

Option Mounts:

Civilian craft are limited to shuttles, APR, cargo and Hull (which represents extra rooms, swimming pools and various luxuries).

Crew

All yachts have a basic crew of 1 unit. Passengers and security can be added, but these are treated as boarding parties for the purposes of this. A yacht never comes with any initial boarding parties, and the SSD shows the maximum amount that can be added - a yacht without barracks may hold 6 parties, while a yacht with barracks may hold 16. Each party is added at 0.5 BPV.

Shuttles

All yachts come with one normal unarmed shuttle per shuttle box that they possess. These shuttles may be substituted for single fighters or armed shuttles at normal costs. A yacht may not carry large fighters (Cylon Heavy Raiders) or other yachts, but may carry Heavy Transport shuttles. Note that Yacht shuttle boxes may not be doubled up - a yacht is just to small to have the space to do this.

New Weapons:

Mini-missile launchers can be found here.
Rocket launchers can be found here.
Small mine racks can be found here.

Civilian and Pirates are not the only people who use yachts. The Colonial Navy also uses them, but in a very limited role - usually that of escort duty in 'safe' areas. These ships are termed Patrolboats (or Gunboats in a very specific case) and unlike yachts, are purpose built for their role. As a result, they have some special case rules that apply to them, but do not apply to normal yachts.

• For the most part, Patrolboats follow all the normal rules for Yachts.
• The BPV includes all crew units, deck crews and boarding parties, but never fighters.
• Some Patrolboats carry fighters. Unlike PF's, these ships are not Fi-Cons (K1.8), and only follow some of those rules. Fighters are carried within the Patrolboat itself, and thus require at least one deck crew. If a Patrolboat carries less than a full flight of fighters, each box on the SSD represents 2 fighters. Fighter boxes may not be doubled up. Fighters also do not have the same launching facilities as larger ships (no launch tubes for instance). As a result, fighters are launched as normal rules (J1.50), and the individual descriptions of the Patrolboat will verify any other special details of the launching.

Because Patrolboats are not proper fighter carriers, they generally only carry normal fighters and never carry spare stores and supplies for fighters with special munitions. They can refuel and re-arm their own normal fighters (but as many ships carry reduced deck crew amounts, this will usually take longer than normal), but not others. They may also only conduct limited repairs to fighters (which, due to space requirements in the ship, take place outside of a scenario).

For more information, see the Colonial Navy Patrolboat page.