Raker?

[reve]

viktor in WoT it was a whole ship class.
I am not used to word 'raker' itself because I play in my own language but, in general, I wouldn't like it if that name was changed.

[Arenti]

viktor in WoT it was a whole ship class.
I am not used to word 'raker' itself because I play in my own language but, in general, I wouldn't like it if that name was changed.

I agree please keep the name Raker if it exists or not.

[Elros]

I like the Raker's name. I see no reason to change it. It is a core part of Cantr and always has been. Everyone knows what it is and it is fine staying the same as it always has been.

[Mafia Salad]

When people wear things like sou'westers, and pirongs, fight with pilums and spathas, work using fractional distillation stacks and desiccator, can make a froe club or balalaika for themselves, and other boats have names like darter and soarer; who's to say where obscure ends and non existent begins. If my only experience with it is in Cantr, why does it really need to exist anyway? Several times now I've googled things to find out what they were, and have the cantr wiki come up as the first hit.

[Lyd]

The Spanish name for the raker was revealing for me. Bergantín translates to Brigantine in English.

[Arenti]

Maybe we should design a ship we can call Raker for in real life?

[EchoMan]

...and other boats have names like darter and soarer;...

Those names are apparently also from the Wheel of Time fiction. Makes me unlike Raker even more. Ok if it had only been one occurance of words from those novels, but now it's starting to turn into some WoT RPG (no not really, but I think it's too much from one single fiction).

[SekoETC]

Wouldn't mind copying more things from WoT. It would be cool if there was a set of tribes where if you get captured alive in battle, you're going to serve the winners as a slave for a year and a day or otherwise you'd lose your face. And also - more spankings!

[EchoMan]

I'm sure it's intuitive, fun and makes sense to anyone who has read those books, but to people who haven't it's just confusing and weird.

[reve]

Not really... I've read WoT in polish and never found words 'darter' and 'soarer'. It was either translated or I missed it. But I use them IC 'cause they are not translated like raker. I think it is intuitive to use for anyone who ever read any fantasy book.

[Adramalech]

After a 2 minute search I've come up with this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raking_fire
In naval warfare, raking fire is fire directed parallel to the long axis of an enemy ship. Although each shot is directed against a smaller target profile than by shooting broadside and thus more likely to miss the target ship to one side or the other, an individual cannon shot that hits will pass through more of the ship, thereby increasing damage to the hull, sails, and crew. A stern rake is more damaging than a bow rake because the shots are not deflected by the curved (and strengthened) bow.

That makes a 'Raker' a type of ship that is specialised in raking fire.
That is probably also why it is so fast, it needed to be faster then any other ship to get into raking fire position first and fire accurately enough to do lots of damage.