Regina Clipper 4-600Td, J6/4, 6/4G (LBB2 2nd Ed plus Drop Tanks)

[Grav_Moped]

Design is LBB2 2nd Ed. compliant aside from the drop tanks and fittings borrowed from LBB5. It is LBB5 compliant, and could save a few MCr by using a LBB5 hull if desired.

Regina Clipper (Fast Liner, Type MF): Using a 400-ton hull with 200-ton drop tanks, the Regina Clipper is intended to provide Jump-6 luxury transport into and out of Regina/Regina (SM1910), a destination with a distant 100-diameter Jump Limit due to the mainworld orbiting a gas giant. It is primarily used on the Efate-Regina run, as the other economically viable destinations from Regina (Rhylanor/Rhylanor and Mora/Mora) are equally accessible by Jump-5.

It has Jump Drive M, Maneuver Drive M, and Power Plant M, giving Jump-4 and 4G acceleration with the 200-ton drop tanks installed; Jump-6 with the drop tanks discarded during Jump; and a fuel-limited Jump-1 and 6G without the tanks.* Fuel tankage of 100 tons internal supports 6 weeks of power plant operation at Pn-4, and combined with the 200-ton drop tanks, also supports one Jump-4. Jump-6 requires the use of all 200 tons of fuel from the drop tanks -- which are then ejected -- plus 40 tons of fuel from the ship's internal tanks; power plant endurance is reduced to 4 weeks in this case due to the increased power plant rating in the smaller hull configuration.*

Adjacent to the bridge is a computer Model/6. There are 13 crew staterooms, 16 passenger staterooms, and 10 low berths. Four turrets are installed; two mount triple beam laser turrets and two mount triple sandcaster turrets. One 20-ton lifeboat with emergency low berths is carried. Cargo capacity is three tons. The hull is streamlined.

The Regina Clipper requires a crew of 13: Pilot, Navigator, Medic, four Engineers, four Gunners, and two Stewards. It can carry 16 high passengers and 10 low passengers; fares are significantly higher than standard due to the ship's enormous operating costs.

The ship is TL-12 (for the computer, and drives under LBB2), and costs MCr 424.11 individually or MCr 381.699 in serial production. Replacement drop tanks cost Cr 200,000 per set, without fuel.


__________________
*The increased power plant fuel consumption is an artifact of LBB2. Accepting the Trillion Credit Squadron/JTAS #14 power-down rule to run the power plant at Pn-2 leaves the ship enough fuel for 4 weeks of power plant operation and a Jump-2 on internal tanks, instead.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Due to the deteriorating security situation at Efate/Regina, some Regina Clippers have been shifted to the Boughene-Regina run to serve executive transport demand from Pandrin/Regina through Boughene. (The Pandrin-Boughene run is supported by Jump-5 couriers.)

Normal cadence on these J-6 routes is one ship every 4 days. Any lower cadence would mean that average wait time plus transit time would exceed the length of a two-jump trip, rendering the use of J-6 pointless.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The crew is all in single-occupancy. Doubling-up everyone except the Pilot, Chief Engineer, and Lead Gunner would free up 20Td that would mostly be used for low berths.

All passengers receive High Passage accommodations and service. The sort of people who can afford the exorbitant Jump-6 fares expect no less.

At this ship's tech level and passenger fares, low passengers are carried under Medical Fast Drug and revived with the antidote at the destination. No survival roll is required.

 

[kilemall]

I would like to propose we call the Fast berthing as Warm berths and a Fast ticket. Double the low ticket price on account of the more desirable no death chance.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I would like to propose we call the Fast berthing as Warm berths and a Fast ticket. Double the low ticket price on account of the more desirable no death chance.

I need to run the numbers on operating costs to figure out what the fares for each class need to be. They're going to be insane... which is why the viable routes have to be between high-pop worlds, and even then it only works by referee fiat.

The spreadsheet I patched this together on didn't have the costs fields I usually use, and I didn't catch it until after I'd finished.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Ok, this ship costs Cr12,145 per payload ton to run if jumping continuously (zero layover) at Jump-6. Which it would need to do -- J6 only, because almost anything with less than J6 drives would be less expensive to operate; continuously because that's the only way to get close to affordable fares (and even then it's still bonkers).

As a rough guess, we're looking at J6 high passage of Cr48,280, and low passage of Cr8,973 (including the Fast and Antidote cost). Call them Cr50,000 and Cr9000 to make nice round numbers.

As a general case, a dose of Fast and a dose of Fast Antidote cost Cr2900 together, and replace the operating cost of the Low Berth.

 

[kilemall]

I thought Fast/Antidote was cheaper then that.

Hmm you're right, guess I was figuring out the per week cost for a long colonization trip, where warm berthing really shines, not a 1-week trip.

I'd charge base price x Jn. So Cr60000 for the High Passage crowd.

In the case of Fast Tickets, I'd figure 1dton per (needs more care and access during), an attending doctor maybe taking 2x the 'capacity' to handle LowBerthers, and charge Cr4000 x Jn. That makes the Fast Ticket still a half-price bargain to the MidPassage, yet 4x the cost of the LowPassage, giving a nice choice to survive but sleep through it vs. taking chances.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I'm wondering whether a version without the lifeboat, only 1G at 600Td, unstreamlined would be more cost-effective if paired with a 200Td support non-starship that could haul the drop tanks and passengers out to an arriving ship at jump limit. 3G with 200Td tanks, 6G without.

If the J6 ships were on a fixed schedule, it wouldn't really matter how fast the support ship went outbound since it'd get there first and wait. The return trip would be as fast as possible.

I don't think 200Td would be big enough, as it'd need 100Td internal tanks to refuel the liner's main tanks, 20Td for the bridge, 30Td fuel, 30Td drives, and at least 1Td for a computer. That leaves 19Td or less, which would pretty much have passengers in cattle-car seating for most of a day... they could have a 3Td lounge though, so maybe? It's also short fuel in the "clean" configuration (30Td for Pn-6). Mind you, that's still 2 weeks fuel for a ship whose design mission is maybe 3 days per sortie, but we're talking LBB2 here. Maybe hauling the huge drop tanks provides a little leeway...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I think you have missed to write some feature, otherwise the cost is off?

I get a custom cost of MCr 406 and a standard cost of MCr 367.

MF-4666662-040000-40000-0        MCr 367         400 Dton
MF-6644462-040000-40000-0        MCr 367         600 Dton
bearing     2     2                               Crew=13
batteries   2     2                                 TL=15
Pass=16 Low=10 Cargo=3 Fuel=100 EP=24 Agility=3 DropT=200

Single Occupancy    LBB2 design                       3       406
                                     USP    #      Dton      Cost
Hull, Streamlined   Custom             4            400      
Configuration       Flattened Sphe     6                       44
Scoops              Streamlined                              
                                                             
Drop Tanks          200 Dton                                    0
Total tonnage       600 Dton                                  
                                                             
Jump Drive          M                  6    1        65       120
Manoeuvre D         M                  6    1        23        48
Power Plant         M                  6    1        37        96
Fuel, #J, #weeks    J-6, 4 weeks            6       100      
                                                             
Bridge                                      1        20         2
Computer            m/6                6    1         7        55
                                                             
Staterooms                                 29       116        15
Low Berths                                 10         5         1
                                                             
Cargo                                                 3      
                                                             
Triple Turret       Beam               4    2         2         8
Triple Turret       Sand               4    2         2         4
                                                             
Launch              20 Dton                 1        20        14
                                                             
Nominal Cost        MCr 406,11           Sum:         3       406
Class Cost          MCr  43,13          Valid        ≥0        ≥0
Ship Cost           MCr 366,90                                
                                                             
                                                             
Crew &               High    16        Crew          Bridge     2
Passengers            Mid     0          13       Engineers     4
                      Low    10                     Gunners     4
                 Extra SR     0      Frozen         Service     3
               # Frozen W     0           0          Flight     0
                  Marines     0                     Marines     0

The basic profitability isn't good...

Estimated Economy of Ship     Standard                                  
       Ship price     Down Payment         Mortgage       Avg Filled
       MCr 366,90       kCr 73 380        kCr 1 529              80%
                                                             
Expenses per jump                       Revenue              
Bank                Cr 733 798          High           Cr 128 000
Fuel + Drop Tanks   Cr 350 000          Middle         Cr       0
Life Support        Cr  52 600          Low            Cr   8 000
Salaries            Cr  20 640          Cargo          Cr       0
Maintenance         Cr  14 676                                
Berthing            Cr     400                                
                                                             
Summa              kCr   1 172                        kCr     136
                                                             
     Income potential per jump     kCr -1036                
  Yearly yield on down payment     -35,3%

It would need ten times the regular ticket price to turn a profit...


At ten times the ticket price, it turns a profit, but is still not a very good ROI:

Estimated Economy of Ship     Standard                                    
       Ship price     Down Payment         Mortgage       Avg Filled
       MCr 366,90       kCr 73 380        kCr 1 529              80%
                                                               
Expenses per jump                       Revenue                
Bank                Cr 733 798          High         Cr 1 280 000
Fuel + Drop Tanks   Cr 350 000          Middle       Cr         0
Life Support        Cr  52 600          Low          Cr    80 000
Salaries            Cr  20 640          Cargo        Cr         0
Maintenance         Cr  14 676                                  
Berthing            Cr     400                                  
                                                               
Summa              kCr   1 172                      kCr     1 360
                                                               
     Income potential per jump     kCr 188                  
  Yearly yield on down payment      6,4%

 

[AnotherDilbert]

An LBB5 design to the same specification would be MCr 80 cheaper in quantity and free up 90 Dt space for payload, but it would have to be TL-15 of course:

MF-4666662-040000-40000-0        MCr 289         400 Dton
MF-6634462-040000-40000-0        MCr 289         600 Dton
bearing     2     2                               Crew=12
batteries   2     2                                 TL=15
Pass=16 Low=10 Cargo=93 Fuel=64 EP=24 Agility=3 DropT=200

Single Occupancy                                     93       358
                                     USP    #      Dton      Cost
Hull, Streamlined   Custom             4            400        
Configuration       Flattened Sphe     6                       32
Scoops              Streamlined                                 0
                                                               
Drop Tanks          200 Dton                                    0
Total tonnage       600 Dton                                    
                                                               
Jump Drive                             6    1        28       112
Manoeuvre D         M                  6    1        23        48
Power Plant                            6    1        24        72
Fuel, #J, #weeks    J-6, 4 weeks            6        24        
                                                               
Bridge                                      1        20         2
Computer            m/6                6    1         7        55
                                                               
Staterooms                                 28       112        14
Low Berths                                 10         5         1
                                                               
Cargo                                                93        
Demountable Tanks   J-6                     1        40         0
                                                               
Triple Turret       Beam               4    2         2         6
Triple Turret       Sand               4    2         2         2
                                                               
Launch              20 Dton                 1        20        14
                                                               
Nominal Cost        MCr 357,69           Sum:        93       358
Class Cost          MCr  72,17          Valid        ≥0        ≥0
Ship Cost           MCr 288,95                                  
                                                               
                                                               
Crew &               High    16        Crew          Bridge     2
Passengers            Mid     0          12       Engineers     3
                      Low    10                     Gunners     4
                 Extra SR     0      Frozen         Service     3
               # Frozen W     0           0          Flight     0
                  Marines     0                     Marines     0

It would turn a similar disappointing profit at 5.5 times the regular ticket price:

Estimated Economy of Ship     Standard                                    
       Ship price     Down Payment         Mortgage       Avg Filled
       MCr 288,95       kCr 57 790        kCr 1 204              80%
                                                               
Expenses per jump                       Revenue                
Bank                Cr 577 904          High           Cr 704 000
Fuel + Drop Tanks   Cr 332 000          Middle         Cr       0
Life Support        Cr  50 600          Low            Cr  44 000
Salaries            Cr  18 720          Cargo          Cr 396 000
Maintenance         Cr  11 558                                  
Berthing            Cr     400                                  
                                                               
Summa              kCr     991                        kCr   1 144
                                                               
     Income potential per jump     kCr 153                  
  Yearly yield on down payment      6,6%

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I'm wondering whether a version without the lifeboat, only 1G at 600Td, unstreamlined would be more cost-effective if paired with a 200Td support non-starship that could haul the drop tanks and passengers out to an arriving ship at jump limit. 3G with 200Td tanks, 6G without.

The simple method is placing the payload in a carried non-starship, like a railway carriage.

Embark in comfort at Regina, accelerate to the jump point, the payload hull is picked up by the jump tender, jump, detach from the tender, accelerate to Efate, disembark in comfort.

We would have to pay for multiple hulls and M-drives, but we could probably jump the tender more often than every two weeks.


And it doesn't work because we meed multiple power plants, with multiple massive power plant fuel, of course...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Let's cheat and build LBB5 small craft (like the LBB2 standard small craft) as building blocks:

Passenger module:

RY-0604401-030000-00001-0       MCr 30,2          60 Dton
bearing     2         1                            Crew=1
batteries   2         1                             TL=12
             Pass=9 Low=5 Cargo=3 Fuel=1 EP=2,4 Agility=4

Single Occupancy                                    3,7      37,8
                                     USP    #     Dton       Cost
Hull, Streamlined   Custom             0           60         
Configuration       Flattened Sphe     6                      4,8
                                                              
Manoeuvre D                            4    1       6,6       3,3
Power Plant                            4    1       7,2      21,6
Fuel, #J, #weeks    J-0, 1,6 weeks                  1         
                                                              
Bridge                                                         
Computer            m/1                0    1       1         2
                                                              
Couch                                       2       1         0,1
Staterooms                                  9      36         4,5
Low Berths                                  5       2,5       0,3
                                                              
Cargo                                               3,7       
                                                              
Mixed Turret        Full                    1       1         
  Weapon            Missile            1    1                 0,8
  Weapon            Sand               3    2                 0,5
                                                              
Nominal Cost        MCr 37,75            Sum:       3,7      37,8
Class Cost          MCr  7,93           Valid      ≥0          ≥0
Ship Cost           MCr 30,20

9 staterooms for 8 passengers + 1 steward.
Armed, since we are apparently living in interesting times...
M-4 to keep cost down somewhat.


Fuel shuttle:
Can carry a 100 Dt drop tank and 50 Dt fuel internally to resupply the tender, two needed to resupply one tender.

TY-0604401-030000-00001-0       MCr 37,6          75 Dton    Ag=4
TY-1602201-030000-00001-0       MCr 37,6         175 Dton
bearing     2         1                            Crew=1
batteries   2         1                             TL=12
               Cargo=51 Fuel=1 EP=3,5 Agility=2 DropT=100

Single Occupancy                                   51,8      47,0
                                     USP    #     Dton       Cost
Hull, Streamlined   Custom             0           75         
Configuration       Flattened Sphe     6                      6
                                                              
Drop Tanks          100 Dton                                  0,1
Total tonnage       175,0 Dton                                 
                                                              
Manoeuvre D                            2    1       8,8       6,1
Power Plant                            2    1      10,5      31,5
Fuel, #J, #weeks    J-0, 1 weeks                    1         
                                                              
Bridge                                                         
Computer            m/1                0    1       1         2
                                                              
Couch                                       2       1         0,1
                                                              
Cargo                                              51,8       
                                                              
Mixed Turret        Full                    1       1         
  Weapon            Missile            1    1                 0,8
  Weapon            Sand               3    2                 0,5
                                                              
Nominal Cost        MCr 47,04            Sum:      51,8      47,0
Class Cost          MCr  9,88           Valid      ≥0          ≥0
Ship Cost           MCr 37,63

 

[AnotherDilbert]

And a LBB2 jump carrier:

MF-4662662-030000-20002-0        MCr 311         400 Dton
MF-6641462-030000-20002-0        MCr 311         600 Dton
bearing     3     3   3                           Crew=10
batteries   3     3   3                             TL=15
               Cargo=1 Fuel=100 EP=24 Agility=1 DropT=200

Single Occupancy    LBB2 design                       1       346
                                     USP    #      Dton      Cost
Hull, Streamlined   Custom             4            400       
Configuration       Flattened Sphe     6                       44
Scoops              Streamlined                               
                                                              
Drop Tanks          200 Dton                                    0
Total tonnage       600 Dton                                   
                                                              
Jump Drive          M                  6    1        65       120
Manoeuvre D         D                  2    1         7        16
Power Plant         M                  6    1        37        96
Fuel, #J, #weeks    J-6, 4 weeks            6       100       
                                                              
Bridge                                      1        20         2
Computer            m/6                6    1         7        55
                                                              
Staterooms                                 10        40         5
                                                              
Cargo                                                 1       
                                                              
Mixed Turret        Full                    3         3         3
  Weapon            Missile            2    1                   2
  Weapon            Pulse              2    1                   2
  Weapon            Sand               3    1                   1
                                                              
Shuttle             60 Dton                 2       120       
                                                              
Nominal Cost        MCr 346,01           Sum:         1       346
Class Cost          MCr  38,06          Valid        ≥0        ≥0
Ship Cost           MCr 311,41                                 
                                                              
                                                              
Crew &               High     0        Crew          Bridge     2
Passengers            Mid     0          10       Engineers     4
                      Low     0                     Gunners     3
                 Extra SR     0      Frozen         Service     1
               # Frozen W     0           0          Flight     0
                  Marines     0                     Marines     0

I had to drop a turret (and gunner) to make it fit.


Cost for a jump carrier + 2 passenger modules is quite comparable to the monolithic ship. Profitability would be improved by jumping the carrier every ten days or so, instead of the normal 14 days.

Operating procedure would be something like:
• Send out two fuel shuttles on a slow orbit to the expected jump arrival point.
• Embark the passengers into passenger modules (or cargo modules if you are so inclined), and send them on a fast orbit to the jump arrival point.
• Jump carrier arrives, launches the passenger modules it arrived with, that accelerates for the starport.
• The fuel shuttles refuels the carrier and attaches the new drop tanks.
• Attach the passenger modules to the carrier.
• Jump out
• Passenger modules arrives at the starport
• Fuel shuttles arrives somewhat later

 

[Spinward Flow]

Counter-proposal.
Turn the ship itself into a jump sled with no passengers and all crew+cargo.
Drop the Lifeboat and replace it with a Modular Cutter.
Move all of the passenger capacity into the Modular Cutter Module (30 tons to play with equals 7 staterooms and 4 low berths). The medic and the steward would be housed aboard the ship as part of the ship's crew.

It has Jump Drive M, Maneuver Drive M, and Power Plant M, giving Jump-4 and 4G acceleration with the 200-ton drop tanks installed; Jump-6 with the drop tanks discarded during Jump; and a fuel-limited Jump-1 and 6G without the tanks.*

The Regina Clipper requires a crew of 13: Pilot, Navigator, Medic, four Engineers, four Gunners, and two Stewards. It can carry 16 high passengers and 10 low passengers

If you could manage to get the starship down to 333 tons (I'm thinking 330 tons, actually) you would be able to swap the TL=12 M/M/M drive configuration for a TL=11 K/K/K drive configuration which would be 105 tons of drives and require only 3 engineering positions instead of 4. Likewise, reducing the high passenger allocation from 16 down to 7 (inside the modular cutter module) would mean you only need one steward instead of a purser plus one more steward. The smaller hull size would also mean that you could only have 3 turrets instead of 4, so that drops a gunner position as well.

Dropping 9 passenger and 2 crew (minus 1 engineer, 1 steward, 1 gunner while adding 1 pilot for the Modular Cutter) staterooms and 6 low berths would rebate 47 tons of displacement. The K/K/K drives would displace 20 tons less as well. Swapping the Lifeboat for a Modular Cutter, however, would cost an extra 30 tons.

K/K/K drives = 105 tons
Fuel = 100 tons (33 tons for 1 parsec, 60 tons for 4 weeks operations, 7 tons for TL=11 fuel purification plant)
3x Turrets = 3 tons
Bridge = 20 tons
Model/6 = 7 tons (TL=12)
Modular Cutter = 50 tons
= 285 tons

That leaves 45 tons remaining out of 330 tons of hull for crew quarters, which is functionally a maximum of 11 staterooms.
Considering the intended business model use case for the ship design, I would honestly recommend allocating 5 tons towards a Mail Vault (go figure...) to help defray operating costs and for secure transport of ... "business presentation materials" needed by the executive class passengers. Alternatively, the 30 tons available in the Modular Cutter Module could be allocated as 6 high passenger staterooms, 2 low berths and a 5 ton Mail Vault so all the "revenue tonnage" stays inside the transport capacity of the Modular Cutter.

Crew positions would be a minimum of:
Pilot (starship), Pilot (small craft), Navigator, 3x Engineers, Steward, Medic, 3x Gunners = 11 crew positions

So with single occupancy staterooms for all crew in single positions, you could have 1 ton of cargo space left over in a 330 ton form factor with K/K/K drives, 1 parsec plus 4 weeks of operations worth of internal fuel and a fuel purification plant. The ship would still need to the TL=12 for the model/6 computer, but that would be the "highest minimum tech" aboard since you could use TL=11 drives and fuel purification plant. Upgrade the fuel purification plant to TL=12 and you can have 2 tons of cargo space remaining! What a deal!

400 tons with M/M/M drives is approximately +20% more expensive (in MCr) than the alternative of 330 tons with K/K/K drives ... but also consuming significantly more fuel and requiring +27% more crew, substantially increasing operating expenses.



Also, just in case anyone wanted to know ... if you start using 1 crew for 2 positions, something extremely curious happens with respect to the pilot, pilot, navigator positions. Observe:

• Pilot-1 = Cr6000
• Ship's Boat-1 = Cr6000
• Navigator-1 = Cr5000
  • 3 staterooms = 12 tons
  • Monthly life support costs: Cr12,000
  • Monthly salary costs: Cr17,000

= Cr29,000 monthly overhead on 12 tons displacement for 3 crew members

• Pilot-2/Navigator-2 = ((6000*1.1)+(5000*1.1))*0.75 = Cr9075
• Pilot-2/Navigator-2 = ((6000*1.1)+(5000*1.1))*0.75 = Cr9075
  • 2 staterooms = 8 tons
  • Monthly life support costs: Cr8000
  • Monthly salary costs: Cr18,150

= Cr26,150 monthly overhead on 8 tons displacement for 2 crew members

You pay slightly more in crew salaries, but because you require fewer crew members you "make it up in volume" because you can save on tonnage in staterooms and lower life support costs for fewer people. Additionally, the two Pilot/Navigator flight crew members are "interchangeable" in that either one can crew the Modular Cutter by defaulting Pilot-2 skill down to Ship's Boat-1 skill when needed, but when the Modular Cutter is docked (and doesn't need to be crewed) you can have a Pilot-2 skilled pilot working with a Navigator-2 skilled navigator on the bridge without needing to "double up" on crew positions for a single crew member.

In fact, you could even afford (in Cr) to have 2x Pilot-3/Navigator-3 (at Cr9900 per month each) costing Cr27,800 in salaries and life support overhead and STILL come out ahead relative to the Pilot-1, Ship's Boat-1, Navigator-1 alternative after factoring in staterooms tonnage, crew salaries and life support overhead.

In other words, there are ways to leverage crews with higher skill levels to reduce operational overhead costs and increase the revenue tonnage fraction of a starship (offer not always valid for gender role assigned Aslan crews).

Another way to accomplish the same trick is everyone's favorite of combining the Steward and Medic positions into the Steward/Medic ... along with combining the Engineer and Gunner positions into the Engineer/Gunner, since the need for both Engineers and Gunners tend to "proliferate" as ships get larger.

The advantage of only needing Skill-1 crew is the ease of recruitment to replace crew members.
The advantage of Skill-2/Skill-2 dual position crew is the reduction in needed stateroom space allocation and life support overhead costs, increasing available revenue tonnage fraction. Yes, the crew salaries "cost more" to pay, but in the accounting of starship economics you tend to wind up "saving more" in other expenses and opportunities by having a more highly skilled crew reducing the number of crew members you need to support.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I think you have missed to write some feature, otherwise the cost is off?

Transposed bridge's tonnage with its cost. Should be MCr401.11 individually, 367.299 in serial production.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Counter-proposal.
Turn the ship itself into a jump sled with no passengers and all crew+cargo.
Drop the Lifeboat and replace it with a Modular Cutter.

The design goal was to maximize high passenger capacity within a J6, 400Td hull with 200Td drop tanks. The Lifeboat was a carryover from an earlier idea that the ship would be non-streamlined since it needed logistics support for the drop tanks anyhow, but I kept it for the aesthetics. It's a passenger liner.

The problem with making a pure jump sled out of the primary hull is that it needs to be 200Td or 400Td to hit the LBB2 drive table breakpoints. (The 200Td version is the Impala class "Gazelle analog" that I wrote up last week, and it doesn't have much room for passengers.) LBB2 maneuver drives are "small and cheap" once you have the matching power plant from the Jump Drive, and Regina has a distant 100D limit so a bigger M-drive is plausible.

Maxed-out high passengers come in 36Td blocks (8 SR plus one more for the steward). Unless space savings elsewhere can free up a third 36Td block, it's not maximally efficient to add them. But yeah, the lifeboat is dead weight. Deleting it, two turrets and their gunners (probably the lasers), and doubling up the enlisted crew might free up enough space for a third 8-pax block (it's close).

 

[Grav_Moped]

And the fundamental problem with the business case is that there is a limited supply of passengers who both are worth Cr50,000 per week (so it's cost effective to shave two weeks out of their round-trip) and have business interests at two locations that are exactly 6 parsecs (or a multiple thereof) apart. Packing in another 8 passengers drops the ticket price to around Cr34K, which might expand the pool of potential customers -- but would it be enough?

 

[Spinward Flow]

Cr34K

Note that Cr34,000 per ticket for 1J6 on what would otherwise ostensibly be a 3 jumps route would be well worth the 4k surcharge.

Also note that you can pull the same stunt using drop tanks on a 2J3 basis ... or without drop tanks on a 2J4 basis instead between Regina and Boughene. The 2J3 would be quite adequate for the Regina to Efate run because of how the star systems are arranged on the hex map.

So really you're competing against the 600 ton J3 Subsidized Liner for the Regina to Efate route (since that is a 2J3 route), and this J6 Clipper you have is way too pricey to compete against that design on economics.

Honestly, you're better off putting drop tanks onto a refurbished Type-T than trying to buy this beast.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The main issue here is that while saving one week on that run might be sufficiently valuable to some people, there just aren't that many of them. Megacorp executives, Barons and on up, maybe merchant brokers.

For the ship to cover costs even at extraordinary fares, it's got to run on an XBoat-like schedule, and that supplies a lot of capacity -- almost certainly more than there is demand for it.

They'd have to be subsidized, and would be the J-6 component of a communications network that needed J-6 links. Counterintuitively, Jump-6 isn't that much more useful than Jump-5 in this region. 5 is just as fast for parsec distances of 1-5, 7-10, 13-15, and 19-20.

Fares would be set at a level that precludes casual use, but wouldn't actually cover the costs.

 

[kilemall]

An option you might consider is a megacorporate ship.

Getting key people, information and equipment across subsectors quickly may be worth the money. Have a mini route with two ships across 12 parsecs even better.

Or lend/provide the service to those in the megacorps’ favor. Nice reward or obligation generated. Gratitude goes a long way with Rule of Sophonts.