Thanks and to answer your question about buying class 3 ships, i have seen a Corvette for sale and my nav skill is only 21. I think the officers skills also affect what you can get hold of, so if you have an officer who has a nav skill of 60+ then use him/her as your nav officer.
I I managed to get myself a Caravel which has a cargohold of 31000 and 30, 24 pounders onboard, she's fast enough to keep most ships at bay and those that can keep up often find her cannons are not very welcoming, i normally target the saild of larger more powerful ships, that way i can sail away into the sunset or moon light as so often is the case. I haven't found any more routes or better officers. It would be nice to get a much better officer to replace the trade officer who's skill is 42 and has basic commerce perk.
One of the reasons i have made so much money apart from the pirate ship i captured, is i enter world map view i remain near the port and wait for the pirate ship which is often on its way to attack me, to come close when the screen comes up saying attack or sail on i attack (its my only choice anyway lol) i let the fort cannons do most of the damage as they damage the sails, crew and the ships hull. I sail around the ship blasting grapeshots at it, then i go in and capture it/them and if the captain surrenders i let him go after capturing his ship which i sell at which ever port i'm at and i keep doing this till its safe to sail on.
As expected the skills been so low has ment i have to rely more on officers which is good, its what i wanted, the skills do take forever to increase which is also what i wanted. Now i have a Caravel i can make about 9000 piasters per merchant quest i do. Not as much as i use to do but that should increase as either my trade skill increases or i find better officers with trade skills.
Whats your Fleut's specs? and have you done any upgrades to her?
If i had to choose a ship from the standard game i would choose the Corvette, she's a class 3 ship with 32 connons, fast averaging about 17 knots perhaps faster and with anything from a 2500 to a 3000 cargohold, after upgrading is done she could carry about 4000 units of cargo and do about 19 to 20 knots, the hull could be as strong as 4000+ which isn't bad, if you install the mod for 42 pounder cannons (which doesn't require a restart) you can upgrade your cannons to 42 pounders at the pirate settlement and hit targets some 800 to 850 yards away Here'#s the topic that tells you how to do it. http://forum.piratesahoy.net//index.php?/topic/14206-shipyard-upgrade-cannons-%26gt%3B-42-caliber/
If you install the ship and character mods i would choose the Constintution for her speed and medium sized cargohold of about 4000 units. I'm currently making a story, a story that is based on ship from my characters past thats returned to reak havoc in the Carribean. I'm just telling the past and how my character came to be etc, here's a little part of that story.
Hi my name is Kidd, William Kid, and i'm going to tell you a story, a story about a ship that was feared by many and was the image of my nightmares for so many years and will remain that way for many more years to come. Back when i first became a captain i sailed a ship called the Night Hawk. She was a fast Colonial Schooner capable of 19 knots and 15 knots when fully loaded with cargo. She had 20, 24 calibur cannons that could hit a target 650 paces away, she was a fears ship and i had bled enough blood on her to be a blood relative.
I was new to the Carribean, life back then was more simple than it is now which we will get to later on in this story. I didn't have much of a clue how to trade but i figured it was easy to learn and learn i did, i was making a nice tidy profit enough to see me through the hard times and enjoy the good times, one day however i stopped at Charlestown it was here that i would become a popular person with the locals and where i would spend most of my day's.
One day after arriving at Charlestown to unloading the Tobacco i had just delivered to the store i decided to have a drink at the tavern. I figured unloading would take a few hours and if the store owner needs goods taking back to Port Royal it would take a few more hours so no need to rush. While in the tavern having a drink a man walked over and sat down saying he had a proposition for me, it involved illegal goods but i would be making a large sum of money, well i had fallen on hard times of late, trading had become less and less what with so many of the more established merchants buying Fleut's and Caravel's and other better trade ship. These ships was capable of holding anything from 2700 up to 3500 units of goods some merchants claimed their ships could carry over 4000 units of cargo which far out classed my cargo hold of 1300 units of goods.
This is one of the reasons i started again aswell, the problem i have is i go much to far into the game and then find myself haveing to back track, there will be no pictures of the past only the present which is where i'm getting to now. In the game all i'm doing is making money and trying to get to a point where the start of the present day can begin.
Guess what I'm gonna sell to Fort Orange now? 
