Re: Mortgage that Starship!!
In reply to #1018 Mortgage that Starship!! by Mark F. Cook
Mark F. Cook writes:
>This one ought to draw some interesting comments.
You bet. This is my specialty.
The main thing overlooked in your post is speculative trade. Most
merchant ships can just barely break even on freight, and some (such as the
far trader) actually lose money under the standard assumptions. Speculative
trade is where merchants (from free traders to Tukera lines) make their real
money. The Ref's guide rules on trade are a bit confusing (so what else is
new :-)), so I'll try to go over all the inobvious stuff. This is from
memory (my
books are at home), so if I goof on the numbers please let me know.
>Let us assume that the merchant acquired a USED Far Trader
The rules imply it is difficult to finance a used ship (although
you could probably swing something if you have high Admin or Liason),
and more importantly, merchant ships received as mustering out benifits
were financed when new even if they are old now. So for my figures, I
will assume that the ship is a new far trader, just financed -- ie rolled
once at mustering out. Multiple rolls just mean the ship is older and more
payments have been made, the amounts don't change.
The far trader list price of MCr. 41.07 is financed as follows:
20% down payment - already made.
1/240 of ship price per month for 480 months (40 years).
This means a total cost of 220%, and a monthly payment of Cr. 171,125.
I think that the monthly ship payment can be dropped off at any A or B
starport, and gets forwarded by Xboat if your bank doesn't have a branch
at that particular port. In the following, I am assuming 2 jumps per month,
and 2 ~5 day stays in port doing business.
Monthly Expenses (in Cr.)
Mortgage 171,125
Fuel None - get water (free) and run it thru the
purification plant. If you don't have one, get one. They are very cheap.
(30,000 Cr for a minimum size tech 15 plant)
Life support 40,000 2K per statroom, whoever is in it, for every jump.
I am assuming worst case for expenses.
Salaries 9,000 All crew gets 3,000/mo. (should be plenty)
Berthing fees 200
Layaway for overhaul 3,423 Based on the cost of the ship when new.
Total Cr. 223,748 per month (4 weeks)
Income
For speculative trade, there are a number of conditions that you need
to make a profit. The first is a good route ("good" can be hard to pin
down without
a lot of analysis -- I'll post some comparisions after checking my
books). Probably the
easiest good route to find is two Hi pop worlds with type A starports
within one jump
of another, so I'll give figures for that.
>According to specs. in "Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats", the ship can
>carry 7 High/Mid passengers, 4 in Low Passage, and 46 tons of freight.
The far trader specs have changed in MT due to the change in ship design
rules; they now have 61 tons of cargo space. I think the low berths are
gone too,
so I'll leave them out of my calculations.
Assumptions: The ship is jumping back and forth between two worlds
with pop 9 (Hi), starport A, tech 15. (A lower tech level is actually
better here,
since it reduces cargo cost without changing anything else, and a pop of
A would
increase available cargos, so this is the worst case of "pop Hi,
starport A"). I
also assume someone on the ship has the Broker and Trader skills.
Passengers:
High: 3D-1D+1 avg. ~8
Middle: 3D+1 avg. ~11.5
Only very rarely will you be unable to get a full load of passengers, so
I will assume a full load of mid. passengers. (Normally, most or all
will be high
passengers - so this will more than compensate for the rare unfilled slot.)
7 Middle passengers Cr. 56,000 per jump (2 weeks)
Speculative Cargo
The Freight and Cargo chart (section 5 on p.50 in Ref's guide) is used
once for freight and once for cargo (twice if you have someone with Broker).
The description for the table does not make this very clear, though, and I
think it should be fixed. I will assume that the DMs for destination pop apply
only to freight, although this is not stated.
Lot type number average average tons
Major: (1D+10 tons ea.) 1D+5 (x2) 17 229.5
Minor: (1D+5 tons ea.) 1D+6 (x2) 19 161.5
Incidental (1D tons ea.) 1D-2 (x2) ~3 11.6
This gives a total of ~402 tons of speculative cargo available, in
variously sized lots. At this point, your person with Trader looks them over
to determine the first die roll for each on the actual value chart for sale at
the destination. 1/6 of them, on average, will have a prerolled "6"; for
~67 tons. He then buys the largest combination of these lots that will
fit in the hold. I will assume that the ship averages 50 out of 61 tons
of prerolled "6" cargo. In practice, any remaining nooks can usually be
filled with prerolled 4 or 5 cargo.
Cargo cost: Base 4,000 - 1,000 (A starport) - 1,000 (Hi pop) + 1,500 (TL15)
= Cr. 3,500 per ton.
Cargo base selling price = 5,000 + 1,000 (Hi vs Hi) = Cr. 6,000 per ton.
At the destination, the goods are sold with the aid of a Broker-4
(available at all type A starports). The prerolled 6 gives a total roll of
7 thru 12 +4 for the broker gives 11 thru 16, for an average actual selling
price of 270% x 0.8 (left after broker fee) = 216% of 6,000 = 12,960 per ton.
Profit is 12,960 - 3,500 (cost) = 9,460 per ton for 50 tons gives a total of
Cr. 473,000 average profit on speculative trade per jump.
Average Monthly Income Estimate ( in Cr.)
Passengers: 56,000 per jump = 112,000 per month
Cargo: 473,000 per jump = 946,000 per month
Total: 1,058,000
Expenses: -223,748
----------
Net Profit 834,252 Cr. per month
This is a lot of money, but remember this is based on average runs
on a good route with no complications (the stuff adventures are made of...)
The point is that it is possible to get rich as a merchant IF you know what
you are doing and choose your route well. In practice, a merchant should be
able to meet the payments and save for a rainy day or time spent off the "good"
routes (ie most places).
Comments and corrections welcome.
W. Dow Rieder
alias Capt. Kagariilian Grant
When the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems
start to look like nails...
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