[TML] lifeboats

[David Shayne]

Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:49:26 -0400
From: Jerry W Barrington <jursamaj at yahoo.com>

> Any routine use of the lifeboats would be absurd. 

Not considering lifeboats as they are described in the rules.

>  The lifeboat designs we're seeing here are cramped, meant for emergency 
> use, and that is appropriate.  That design is horrible for ferrying passengers
> around.

Emergency low berths are explicitly stated to be capable of carrying 1
conscious passenger each (Supplement 7 page 39) for those circumstances. 
Ideal for a starport shuttle? No, but a good compromise for a ship desiring both 
routine passenger transport and on board emergency evacuation capability. 

> And to be useful to move any small cargo, you'd have to strip out the
> emergency supplies, etc, and then put them back when done
> *every single time you use it*.

No just remove the emergency supplies when you arrive at your destination 
and then replace them before you leave for your next. Or leave out a couple 
ELBs when buying your lifeboat to accomodate dedicated cargo space. It's
not like emergency supplies take up a lot of space when the vast majority
of your passengers are in cold sleep anyway.

David Shayne