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To build a ship from scratch, you will of course need the shipbuilding skill. The shipbuilding skill can be obtained from the maritime guids in Istanbul, Tunis, and Calicut (Requires r7 maritime and r3 repair), or from any maritime guild if you have a job with shipbuilding preferred. The expert job, Shipwright, is what I recommend, but the job is also preferred by Arms Dealer, Tactician, and Guardian. You will also need at least the required level to build the ship you desire. You must invest in any port you wish to build ships in. Certain ships can only be built in certain ports, and you'll also need an investment in that port. I am not for certain about the exact amount of investment required to build in a port, but I usually invest about 2.5m and haven't had any problems thus far. Remember that only members of a corresponding nation can invest in cities that are designated as territories, so to build in some ports you may need to defect to that nation in order to invest in those areas. The best shipbuilders have defected to all 7 nations, and have invested in every territory for each nation.

There are a number of ways to boost your base shipbuilding rank.

If you are in the shipwright job, you get an automatic +1 to shipbuilding.

One way is through +1 items. For shipbuilding, these are few and far between. The only items I know of that boost shipbuilding are:

A must for any budding shipbuilder. They used to be very rare and expensive, but due to a flooding of the market by the sailor's bottle, they are much less rare/expensive now.

These are items obtained using the Search command at a few landing points, namely North Beruit. I'm not sure of the exact search level required, but someone on ivyro claims to have found it with r7 search. I usually just buy mine for about 10m each. It also gives +1 handicrafts.CAUTION - these only have 5 durability, and degrade quickly on the water. Try to bank them when not in use (If you're as forgetful as me, you'll be kicking yourself often for this!)

This is a very pricey robe from the Astro shop that gives +1 shipbuilding. It is not tradeable. Due to non-tradeable nature and price of this item, many players chose to get their SB boosts elsewhere.

There are 1-hour and 24-hour tradeable Astro items that give boosts to shipbuilding (+3, maximum of r20). The 1-hour boosts are tradeable (Thanks to Giddygiddy for the info about the 1-hour boost); I am not sure about the 24-hour ones (I don't use them because I am already r20 ^^).

Several aides have a skill in the surgeon job that gives +1 to shipbuilding. Those aides and their requirements include:

Vallerie* - Surgeon 75 - ( 20 / 28 / 42 )

Igor* - Surgeon 55 - ( 10 / 10 / 21 )

Victor - Surgeon 85 - ( 25 / 25 / 41 )

Nazario - Surgeon 80 - ( 25 / 28 / 40 )

Chester - Surgeon 65  - ( 13 / 16 / 30 )

Meng Meng* Surgeon 55 - ( 20 / 20 / 30 )

* = Astro aide

"Another way of gaining ship building boosts is thru the Holy Roman Emperor Election. The current 2-time reigning emperor, Charles V, promised and delivered shipbuilding bonuses to anyone who supported him in his election. A casual backer may only get +1, but an Imperial Naval Mechanic (and all company members and friends) can enjoy as much as +3 to shipbuilding until the next election is announced.

Candidates and their policies vary widely...but if you are an aspiring shipbuilder, I urge you to endorse Uncle Chuck whenever possible." - Marsali

(Special thanks to my dear friend Marsali for this information from the comments on the original forum version of this guide)

You've likely seen someone shouting "WTH r20 shipbuilder" or "R20 shipbuilder for hire". This is because players can fleet with other players and effectively leech their shipbuilding skills. This is a common thing to do in the event that you don't have the desired level to build a ship. I suggest you find an experienced shipbuilder who you can TRUST. There are a lot of scammers, con-artists, and fake r20 Shipbuilders out there  (see CullumStraun's comments about r20 fakers below). Watch out for them, and if you run across them, warn your friends.

Rank 20 is currently the maximum SB rank. The benefits of using a rank 20 Shipbuilder are increased likelihood of great successes and decreased likelihood of getting fails. The players who have r20 have gone through a very expensive, time-consuming grind, so show them the respect they deserve. If you get a r20 shipbuilder to work with you to build a ship, remember that you work on the SB's time and not yours, and always be respectful, even if you disagree with their advice do so respectfully. A lot of shipbuilders share info with one another so if you are a jerk to one shipbuilder then you may get blocked by several!

Well, simply put, you build a lot of ships! The most common way to do this is with the Build New Ship function at the shipyard (See the section below), although you get some proficiency for modifying ships via Special Shipbuilding. There are a number of different grinding strategies, and players usually find a route that is best for them, given the constraints of their budgets and time. Some players prefer ships that give a lot of proficiency but take several days to complete, so that they can AFK to do other things more. Other players go for ships that have the most proficiency per day at sea possible, to minimize the amount of time they have to be in shipbuilding grinding purgatory. Still others do it slowly, and build ships they know they can sell to other players to minimize the ducats they lose. To do this, I consulted Ivyro to determine what gave me the maximum proficiency per ship, per day at sea. I'll give an example of what I mean here:

This is the page for "Schooner" on Ivyro. In yellow, I have highlighted the required days per ship build. In red, I have highlighted the amount of proficiency received per ship you build, at various base SB ranks. I compared several ships by dividing the proficiency received by the days at sea, to determine proficency per day at sea. From this, I developed the following grinding strategy, but feel free to compare ships on your own and develop your own path :)

*NOTE* keep in mind that required shipbuilding ranks have decreased since I did my grind - you may be able to build some of these ships at lower ranks now:

Really any ships you can build at this level should get you through these ranks quickly. Even Barcas will work. I suggest you try to get a couple of boosts of some sort (aide, SSB, shipwright saw) to move on to the next ranks quickly. Simply build a ship, go out to sea until it is finished, pick it up from the shipyard, and sell it back to him. Be prepared to lose some ducats this way.

*NOTE* I HIGHLY suggest docking or storing your ships that you are not equipping while doing the grind, as you will constantly be selling the ships you built. If you're not careful you can accidentally sell your good ships this way! Be smart and stash them so this doesn't happen, I very nearly clicked to sell my AFCV this way when I was sleepy!!!

At this point I moved on to Dhow's in Beruit. They're a little bit better proficiency until you can get to the next set of ships.

This is the part where this really starts to become a grind. At this point, I find that schooners at the North American colony are best. Only colonies with a population greater than 3000 with a r2 shipyard can build them; I did mine at the Friend-Builder's colony). It is only 6 days per build though, so there is quite a bit of back and forth. I got a timer, set it to 6 minutes, then checked back in from time to time. If this gets a bit monotonous, there are some other options in this range, for you to change it up. Sambuks (built in the red sea, rank 9), Cutters (built in Iberia or the North American colonies, rank 6), Emigrant Barques (built in British Isles, rank 12).

*NOTE* Some of these areas are in hostile waters, and shipbuilders generally carry a lot of money on them. When I was grinding at the colony, I had some noob pirate try to lure me south of the colony, knowing that I had a lot of money on me, so that he could attack me. In addition, if you accidentally click a button, you can go sailing off. Just be careful when you grind in these areas, and even if you do keep a good bit of cash on you, be sure you bank anything important, if nothing else just to save durability on your equipment.

At this point the grind becomes more expensive, and you can move to building Turkish Galleys at Northern Africa. I recommend grinding at Algiers, the SY is close to the harbor entrance, same layout as Tripoli, but no sirens in those water. These used to require r18 shipbuilding to make, but I do know that this one was reduced to r14. If I remember correctly, it's more than 1m lost per ship, but it's the best xp per day at sea that I've found so far. When you get to this point, keep it up! You're almost there!

There are actually two ways to build ships de novo (from scratch).

Click the shipyard master, and click build new ship.

Select the ship you want to build (remember, any ship you don't have the levels for will not be displayed). For this example, let's choose a Trading Clipper.

Select the type of hull you would like to build. These are going to vary in what I call their "heaviness", with heavier woods like oak and mahogany having more durability but less speed (reflected in the sails), and lighter hulls like beech and teak having far less durability but more speed. Keep the use of the ship in mind when you select your hull. At certain shipbuilding ranks, different/better hulls are unlocked.

The hull material types affects the color of the ship hull, the sails and the durability. They include the following, and are (loosely) arranged from high sails to high durability/low sails (keep in mind new ones may be released in upcoming updates):

Teak/Nocturnal wood/Celebratory wood/Festive wood - Highest sail boost (speed)

National Wooden Panels (Same speed as teak, more durability - NEW!)

Cedar

Mahogany

Red pine

Rosewood

Beech

Oak

Elm

Copper-coated

National Military Paneling - highest durability

Iron/festive metal paneling - Lowest sail boost (good durability)

Decide what is best for you. A good maritime ship generally will go for iron or military paneling, to max that dura as much as possible, while a trade ship or adventure ship will generally gear themselves for speed.

Next, you'll be asked to specify the hold space for your fine vessel. Hold space directly affects speed - those ships with a small hold will be faster, but hold less provisions/munitions/timber/cargo, and the opposite also holds true. There are two cargo ranges here *NOTE - This is very important!* The first set of numbers you see is the TOTAL range (in red), and the second is the EFFECTIVE range (in black).

Most vessels don't go outside of the effective range unless they have planned to do so. Lets give the example of this Trading Clipper here. The Effective range (in the black box) is 512-774, and the total range (in the red box) is 480-800. If I go outside of the effective range (either between 480-511 or between 775-800), I receive a pretty hefty penalty (-25 to vertical sail, -25 to horizontal sail, -5 Wave Resistance, and for row ships, -5 rowing)Once you've selected the boat you'd like to build, the materials for the ship, and the cargo you want, it's time to give your fine vessel a name.

*NOTE* - Some ships DO go outside of the effective range, but they (hopefully) do so intentionally, and over shoot the sails and wave resistance to compensate for this. It is believed that a ship with total minimum hold (called a -25% hold build, as it has 25% less hold than the ship comes stock) is faster than one that is minimum effective hold (a -20% hold build), an option that is popular for battleships and speed-modded ships. Conversely, some trade ships like to go +25% hold space to totally maximize their cargo. The higher a shipbuilder's rank is, the further out of the effective range they can build, so only a r20 shipbuilder can build a truly max/min cargo ship.

After naming, it will give you a number of days required to build (see bottom right, just above building cost). For the building to proceed, you'll need to be on the water for the required number of days (1 minute = 1 day) to build. You do not have to be moving, but you may do so if you wish (Ever seen people parked outside of port? They're building ships!) When the time is up, go collect your ship at any shipyard master.

FS (short for Free Style) shipbuilding is a way to build certain ships using hulls. There are some advantages to building this way. For starters, several ships can ONLY be built using FS building (my example will be building a gunboat). In addition, using a hull to build a ship makes the ship 1/x, meaning you don't have to pay for SSIPs for the first round of mods (we will discuss this in the Special Shipbuilding - Modification section). Finally, building a ship with a hull gives a boost to the dura of the ship from the hull, and in some cases (building "Official" ships) can even automatically put on a military paneling for a ship (see Building Official Hull ships below).

Technically you need the shipbuilding level required, an appropriate sized investment in the port you plan to build in (I shoot for about 2.5m at least), and parts. The bare minimum parts you will need include a hull that corresponds to the ship you wish to build (If in doubt, look on ivyro - scroll down to the part that says "It may required Development and Investment"), a sail, and a gunport, although it is highly suggested that you pick two armament slots as well, unless you are going super cheap for a fusion material ship.

*NOTE* - I just now put the parts needed in bold, because a client of mine just got all the way out to the colony to make an LMS, and forgot a gunport.Don't let this happen to you!XD

Go to the place the ship is to be built at. To find that information, turn to Ivyro. This is from the Ivyro page for gunboat, a popular ESF light ship.

This section of ivyro gives you a lot of information on building the ship, including what hull is used, where to build it, SB level required, and  how much it will cost. Keep in mind that the SB level requirements to build many ships have been reduced on GAMA, so these numbers may not be accurate anymore. Now, make sure you've invested, and go to the shipyard. Select "Special Shipbuilding" (Make sure you've got an open slot for it!) and then select the option at the top, If a certain ship you want to build is not available, check your shipbuilding level - it is also possible that there is not enough development of the port, or that you do not have the correct hull. If the ship does show up, then select the ship you want to build, and click next.

You will now be asked to put parts on your ship. You will not be allowed to continue to the next screen without a sail and a gunport, but I suggest you fill her up by putting 2 armament-type ship parts on as well.

Once you have put all your parts on, click next. You will be then asked to select cargo. If you missed my earlier discourse about ship cargo, please reread the "Cargo Selection" section. Once you have selected your cargo, you will be ready to name your ship and begin the build. Take note of how many days at sea the build requires, then put her in the oven and head out to sea.

Certain ships can be built using official hulls. My example will be a Vaisseau. You can build a 0/5 Vaisseau in Iberia from the "Build ship" menu.

You could also build it using FS building, with an Official Large 3 decked hull, in any capital. Doing so will add a lot of additional durability onto the ship, and will add the corresponding color of military paneling to the ship (i.e. yellow Vaisseau from Seville, red one from Venice, etc.), without having to use a panel :)

Most of you reading this guide will likely be most interested in this section, because everyone wants to mod their ships into something awesome. In order to mod your ships, you will need SSIPs (Special Shipbuilding Improvement Permits) and at least the minimum shipbuilding level required. As SSIPs aren't cheap (5 for 20 Astros, or about 20m current market value), I suggest making the most of your improvement by hiring a good r20 shipbuilder. Get one you can trust and come back to, not some random in Seville or world chat. And most importantly, don't forget to tip them, the shipbuilder's time is worth something, and many may block you if you are a cheapskate to them! Once you have invested in the port you would like to build in (Seville is popular amongst the Spanish; Ceuta is a close option for those who are not), click on the shipyard master and select special shipbuilding. 

I *highly* recommend you plan your build and speak with a knowledgeable shipbuilder before building any ship. I plan all of my shipbuilds on UWOTool.com before beginning. UWOtool.com is an excellent tool that lets you see your options, skills, and parts and project outcomes of mods before you mod. Here's an example of a ship plan from UWOtool.com that I made:

After you have selected Special Shipbuilding, select the ship you wish to modify, then select your parts.

For each mod you can add a sail, a gunport, and 2 armament type items. As tempting as it may be to max everything, I suggest you only add gunports when necessary, as it is possible that you will get a great success on a gunport slot and not on something important like a sail or an armament. Keep in mind that certain combinations of parts on certain ships will give skills to that ship; for a full list of these consult both Ivyro and UWOtool. Also proof over your plan to make sure you don't accidentally end up with a ship skill you don't mean to have! Once you've added your parts, it's time to select your cargo (See the Cargo Selection section above for more info).

After that, check the number of days to completion, put a name on her, and head out to the water for the specified number of days.

Courtesy of Kubrius's Shipbuilding Manual, below is a chart that illustrates the number of mods you need for each class of ship. 

*NOTE* Keep in mind this chart does NOT include SSIPs for paneling/dismantling and/or additional mod slots.

The number of of mods your ship says as maximum is often times not the true maximum! For many ships, you can add additional mod slots (up to 2). To do this, you'll need to go to a colony that has a r2 shipyard, and click the shipyard master. Select "Add additional improvements" from the first menu. This will require some ducats and 1 SSIP per slot you add.

*NOTE* This will raise the boarding level of the ship 5 ranks to the highest level requirement of the ship. For example, say you have a 5/5 Vaisseau (Requirements are 16/8/52). If you add an additional mod slot on, it will make it a 5/6 vaisseau, but the requirements for the ship will now be 16/8/57. Just be careful you don't push the ship beyond your ability to use it

TO THE BEST OF MY UNDERSTANDING this is what ship stats mean:

- Durability (often just called "Dura" is basically the HP/endurance of a ship. Higher durability ships can last longer against cannonfire, storms, waves, etc.

- This stat governs how well/fast your ship sails in headwinds/crosswinds.

- This stat governs how well/fast your ship sails in tailwinds.

- For Row ships, this stat affects how fast your ship goes when the rowing skill is active.

- This ship indirectly affects a number of things, include speed when carrying cargo, ability to resist damage from high waves, and some say it indirectly affects speed both in and out of battle. Also, a ship with a total wave resistance of 11 or more will be "stormproof" (you will actually see an icon indicating this by your character name in a storm), meaning that you take considerably less damage during a storm and lose much less cargo due to the storm as well. This stat is essential for trade ships, and important for other ships as well.

- Affects how quickly you can make a turn, and also how quickly you regain speed after turning

- Armor is basically the defense level of a ship. Armor also affects acceleration (how fast you get up to speed), although that point is hotly debated amongst some shipbuilders

- How many additional sailors have been added to the ship. Usually only important for maritime vessels.

- How many additional guns have been added to the ship. Usually only important for maritime vessels.

- How much additional cargo space has been added to the ship. Usually only important for trade vessels.

Ship handling proficiency (SHP)is a measure of how well seasoned your ship is, and directly affects the max stats on your ships. These usually go to 200/200 for heavy-class ships and lower for others, and the ship will not meet it's full potential until its SHP is maxed. If a ship has been graded, each grade raises the max SHP for the ship by 5. There are 4 main ways to raise SHP. One is simply to sail around in it, as you sail, the SHP will gradually rise. Another way is to craft in the ship (making goods/items through recipes); this is a little faster. A third way is to do battle in the ship. I cannot tell if this increases the SHP in itself, or if it is simply a byproduct of sailing around a lot.

However, the hands down best way to do this is to find a colony that has a Paymaster building. You can speak to the NPC there, and select the "Ship Proficiency Training" button, which will automatically add about 30-35% of the ships maximum SHP. You can do this once per day, and it affects all ships in your inventory. You can also have a friend or an alt do the same thing to your ship as well, so if you plan well, you can maximize your SHP in a single day! I recommend registering a colony (I register the Friend-Builders colony, as it has one, and is an excellent colony for shipbuilding, having a very accessible SY right beside the port entry and also a building that gives +1 to all production skills, including Shipbuilding!)

There is an astro item, Special Shipbuilding Improvements Reset (formerly Special Shipbuilding Dismantlement Techniques), that will allow you to reset the performance of a ship. This is ideal sometimes, if you buy a ship with crappy mods, or get some Astro ships from ticket (all ships from ticket come 1/x with a skill on them) so that you get additional mod slots. IF you are to dismantle, make sure the ship has the panel you want on it before hand, as you will not need to waste a mod slot on a panel, an old SB technique. However, I wouldn't advise on dismantling every single Astro ship ticket you get, as dismantles are expensive (98 astros apiece, and with Astros selling around 5m each, that's nearly 500m per dismantle), and some ships (especially aide ships) can be modded just fine without dismantling. Dismantling a ship does not remove Original Ship Skills or any bonuses associated with grade (To remove grade bonuses, you must use a different item, Ship Grade Reset). To actually dismantle a ship, you must have a Special Shipbuilding Dismantlement Techniques in your inventory, then select special shipbuilding. On the first screen, click the "reset performance" button. After a series of warnings, you can reset the ship to a 0/x, which gives another round of mods, and (most often) space for a skill of your choice.

Each ship part gives a range for potential improvements. Lets take the example here of a painter rope, +2 to +4 turn:

If you get a low end +2 turn, this is considered to be a "fail". If you get a +3 (most likely) it is considered a success. Finally, if you're lucky and get a +4 turn, then it is considered to be a GS (great success). Great successes are sometimes what sets apart a good mod and a great mod, and there are just a couple of (confirmed) ways to increase your chances to get them. 

A lot of "shipbuilding magic" (rumors/tricks among shipbuilders) may increase your chances of success. It is important to note that I cannot personally verify if some/any of these work; however, if you are the superstitious type, I am almost for positive that these can't hurt, either. Here are some of those things that are rumored to increase chances of great success:

Magician tarot

increases chance of production success. This works not only in SB'ing but in other applications as well (making 100def gloves/boots/etc.). THE MAGICIAN TAROT ONLY GIVES INCREASED CHANCE OF GREAT SUCCESS WHEN LIT for production skills, so one would assume the same is true for shipbuilding. Therefore, you will need to be patient and time your build starts carefully to activate them while the tarot is lit should you choose to use this technique. The tarot can be pulled from several locations, including the shining tarot (magician), gold and alchemist's tarots, and possibly from others as well (information derived from http://unchartedwaters.wikia.com/wiki/Tarot_cards).

Oxford Production Skills

The skills that assist in production success for other production skills are believed to play a role in getting increased success from shipbuilding mods as well. Below is a list of those skills, courtesy of the official UWO wikia:

Oxford Thesis: Item Improvement Techniques:

I heard a new rumor about this oxford skill helping to increase GS rates for shipbuilding. As with the production success skills, simply equip the oxford skills before you begin with your mods. (Credit to CullumStraun for this information)

Paymaster aide (100):

Another common way to boost production success is to have an aide in paymaster job, with his traits all the way maxed to 100.

Oscilating cargo within effective range (min/maxing):

One trick I was taught early on was altering cargo between max and min EFFECTIVE each mod. This makes your mods cost slightly more, but hey, if it gives great success, I see it as money well spent.

Disclaimer:

As I have mentioned previously, you take a penalty when you go outside the effective range, and it's a hefty one. What I did not mention is that these penalties add up if you do it again if you go to a change that cargo to another value outside the effective range (this is why I recommend if you are taking penalty to do it on the last mod). I have a friend who helped a friend shipbuild, and he tried this, but was not careful, and was using the TOTAL range instead of the EFFECTIVE range to build a CSTS. On the fourth mod, the ship was -60 sails, -20 rowing, which made the client dismantle a ship he had Astro ship parts on. When I heard the values, I knew immediately what he had done, he had taken compounding penalties. You don't want to be this guy, so pay attention if you decide to try this!

Figure out how many mods you need, and what you want the final cargo to be. Then work your way backwards, and plan your cargo changes. Here are two examples.

I have a 0/8 venetian paneled and dismantled Modified Ironsides, which goes to 8/8. I want it to end up on min effective cargo for speed. SO, mod 1 will be max effective cargo(883), mod 2 min effective cargo (584), mod 3 max effective, mod 4 min effective, so on and so forth, with all odd mods being max effective cargo and all evens being min effective so that I finish 8/8 on min effective cargo.

I have a 0/7 nocturnal paneled and dismantled Festive Big Trading Clipper, which goes to 7/7. I want it to end up on max TOTAL cargo for the most cargo possible. In my mod plan I have accounted for the penalty by intentionally overshooting the sails by +25 and the WR by +5. SO, mod 1 will be max effective cargo (1185), mod 2 min effective cargo (784), mod 3 max effective, mod 4 min effective, so on and so forth, with all odd mods being max effective cargo and all evens being min effective keeping in mind that the final mod is to be TOTAL max cargo 1225 so that I finish 7/7 on max TOTAL cargo.

Gradual Cargo increasing/reduction:

Much like the previously mentioned cargo oscillation, there are some ship builders that suggest gradually adjusting cargo towards the cargo you wish to end up with. Recently I have been trying this trick, and I seem to be getting more great successes than I had before (I must also mention that I have only done this a handful of times, and do not have a large enough sample size to rule out random chance).

An example of how this would work for a battle ship:

I panel and dismantle an Ambush First Class Vaisseau. I want the end cargo to be minimum effective cargo (624), for speed. Mod one I set the cargo to maximum effective cargo (943). The range between the max and min effective cargo is 319. Ambush First Class Vaisseau has 8 mods, and the first one was used to set the cargo to max effective, leaving 7 mods remaining. Divide that difference by 7 (319/7 = 45.5). So, each mod reduce the cargo by 45 (I round down, making sure to fix it to min effective on the final mod).

Again, it is important to remember that these are unconfirmed "tricks" to shipbuilding, and it is virtually impossible to test whether or not they work, because of the element of chance involved with the success level of mods. The one thing that I am for positive about, however, is that r20 shipbuilders ARE more likely to get great success and fails than other non-r20 shipbuilders, with that chance of success increasing at higher levels.

If you've made a mod plan on UWOtool.com, you can isolate individual mods or mods so far up to a point by checking/unchecking the boxes for each row of mods, and see the expected values, and compare those values with what is actually on your ship. Let's look at an example from an Ottoman Galleas plan I made for a friend:

According to the plan, after the first mod, if all mods were standard success, then the ship should have +35 vertical sail, -15 horizontal sails (metalwork takes some sails), +20 durability (this shows 220; 200 of that is from fusion bonus for durability, so please ignore that portion for now) and +4 armor.

IF his actual ship showed that he had received +35 vertical, -15 horizontal, +10 durability and +5 armor, that would mean he got success for the vertical and horizontal sails (he met the expected values), a fail for durability (he did not meet the expected), and a GS for armor (he exceeded the expected values).

Depending on how you plan to use a ship, it may be advantageous to refit the guns and crew for your ship. You don't necessarily need a r20 to refit, any player over r5 shipbuilding can do the same degree of refitting as a r20 could. To do so, make sure you have r5 or more shipbuilding (or fleet with someone who does) and head to the shipyard. In addition, you must have the required levels to use a ship to refit it.

Click the shipwright (not the shipyard master) and select "Refit":

Select the ship you plan to refit. In this example, we will look at my Modified Manila Galleon (Caddy's Cadillac!).

The next screen will come up. The amount of cargo you have on the ship is directly affected by the number of guns on the ship. This Modified Manila Galleon is built specifically for cargo, so I normally keep crew and guns to minimum. Notice the cargo at the bottom in this configuration is 1084:

Now let's say that I want to get crazy with it and go out to grind maritime in this ship (not recommended; it's too slow, and the way I modded was for cargo, not battle), and I want to refit it to max crew/guns. Click on the buttons for each, and make it max:

Now, let's look at what happened to the cargo:

You can see here that the cargo has been considerably reduced, from 1084 to 981. It is important to notice that this change to CARGO is offset by converting that space on the ship to guns and crew quarters, so thus no change to VOLUME has occurred, meaning the ship will go just as fast as it did before (no boost to speed for having less cargo by changing it this way).

There is one more important function in the refit menu, and that is the reconfiguration of masts. Look at the red box 1 here:

This is a bad example ship, but some ships can have the configuration of their masts altered here. Let's take a look at Large Carrack, which can be altered into 4 different configurations:

Each configuration has a different combination of horizontal and vertical sails. Find the one that suits your purposes, and keep in mind that you can change it at will.

Ship skills are important and useful, and there are three ways to add skills to your ship. *important note* To use any ship skills, you MUST meet the requirements (Navigation, Management, and/ or arms; some skills require more than 1!). Each ship can have 1 skill from Skill Inheritance, 2 original skills (or more if the add skill slot bonus is taken from grade bonus in fusion), and 1 optional skill.

The first way to add a skill that we will not cover in great detail here is via ship rebuilding or fusion. You can "inherit" skills not available in other formats for the ship this way. You may also add extra ship skill slots via fusion, slots that you can add optional skills from. For more detail visit the "Skill Inheritance" section in Part 2.

The second way to add ship skills are via "optional skills". For each ship there are several per-determined optional skills that are available if you use certain parts in mods. Ivyro and uwotool.com are great resources for this. Below is an example of how they are displayed on Ivyro for a trading clipper:

In the red box above, the parts required for Emergency Acceleration skill are shown, a large gaff sail and an antifouling paint. You may use any other parts you wish in combination; however, you MUST USE a large gaff and an antifouling paint, if you want the Emergency Acceleration skill (no substitutions, not even a dgaff). On Ivyro, the skills for Astro ships are usually shown on their non-Astro base models (for example, skills for a Custom La Royale are those that appear on the La Royale page).

However, sometimes the Astro ships can have hidden skills. An example I discovered  while working with a client was Welcome Melee Battle on the Custom Ottoman Galleas; The Ottoman Galleas does not have this optional skill, but the Custom Ottoman Galleas does! The best way to check this is to cross reference the Ivyro page for both the base and Astro model ships, check the comments below for anyone posting hidden skills, and cross reference with UWOtool.com.To see the optional skills on ships on UWOtool, it's much easier:

The red box at the top shows where the thumbnail for the skills are located, and the arrow at the bottom shows a dropdown menu for skills. Simply select the skill you want, and the parts you need show up! It's that easy! For more information about using UWOtool.com, check the "UWOtool.com - A SB's best friend" section.

Below is a list of all ship skills (to the best of my knowledge), what they do, and the Navigation/Management/Arms ranks needed to use them, taken from Ivyro. Keep in mind not all ships can use each skill! Use the afore mentioned method to determine which skills can go on the ship you wish to use!

The third and final way you can add ship skills to a ship is by using an "Original skill". To do this, you must have (or be fleeted with someone who does) the shipbuilding level required or higher, must have the necessary number of original ship permits for the skill (Available from turning in 200 Patriot Awards to the secretary at your nation's capital), and a couple of parts for the original skill. Original skills can only be added in the capitals of nations you have invested in. One of the major advantages about an original ship skill is that they can be "overwritten" (that is, if an original skill is already on a ship, simply add another to negate the previous one and add the new one). To add an original skill, go the the shipyard master in the capital city, and click  "Build Original Ship".

Next, select the ship you wish to add an original ship skill to:

You will see the list of ship skills you can add to the ship via Original Skill. Select the skill you want to add. You will now need to a) have the correct number of OSPs and ducats required for the skill in your inventory, and b) click each part that is required to add them. It is important to note that unlike special shipbuilding, where the parts added for a skill do add some boost to ship stats, the parts added to make an original skill do not. In this example, I will try to add Earthquake-proof Hold to this Modified Frigate (Just an example, this ship already has an original skill that is better, I do not recommend this skill!)

There's a lot going on here, so pay attention to the red boxes.

1) The skill you have selected to add.

2) The requirements to use said skill - if it is red, you do not currently meet those requirements.

3) The number of Original Ship Permits (OSPs) you need to put the skill on the ship.

4) is the number of days at sea you will need to wait to build it, and how many ducats it will cost. When you are ready, click next:

Now, you must manually add the parts by clicking on them to add. When you are finished, name the ship and press complete, then head out to the water :) *NOTE* This type of improvement does not benefit by using a r20, so for this kind of mod (one that does not affect ship stats, since you are simply adding a skill), any shipbuilder who meets the requirements will be fine.To determine which skills can be added to your ships, click the "build original ship" button on the Ivyro page for the ship, or use the dropdown menu in UWOtool.com:

Below is a list of Original Skills that can be added to ships. As with the list of Optional Skills, not all can be put on any ship. The skill is listed first, then the requirements, then what the skill does, and finally the number of OSPs required to add the skill:

Every ship will vary based on their usage, but in my mind, these are your base priorities for several different types of ships. In my mind, most ships worth modding (except aide ships) need to have max sails. Beyond that, here's some initial, very general advice on how to mod several types of ships:

You want a strong, high durability high armor ship, max sails, likely with at least 2-3 ship skills on it. Turn is a big thing too, as being able to turn quickly is essential to avoiding critical hits. Pick your skills wisely and according to your battle style, and experimentation is ok! just don't do it on an expensive one :) (Cargo min effective -20% or total min -25% if offset by additional improvements)

Durability >= Armor = Sails > Turn > WR. Crew factors in for some ships that are either crew heavy or low crew, to add to strengths or compensate for deficiencies.

You need to be very fast both in and out of battle. Most piracy ships sacrifice high durability by using teak panels for speed. Many are galleys due to their high speed, high crew, and abilities as a rowing ship (Cargo min effective -20% or total min -25% if offset by additional improvements)Sails >= Rowing >= Armor > WR > turn > Durability

You want a ship that is fast, can carry a lot of cargo, and get you there safely. WR affects speed while carrying cargo, so it is a bigger component than in some battle ships. A bit of armor can help with acceleration and protection in a pinch. Use a teak panel for additional speed. (Cargo max effective +20%, or total max +25% if penalties offset by improvements)Sails > WR > Turn > Armor > Cargo

Your Aide ships speed does not affect your own. For most of my ships, I try to put on Nanban preference if the ship can have it, then everything else goes to cargo. Many aide mods go to full max cargo (with penalty) as it does not slow down the captain in the lead vessel, and many only max cargo on their aide ships. Cargo > everything else

I personally know less about modifying ships for adventure than trade or battle ships, but I do know quite a bit about modding ships for speed. Use a teak panel for speed. (Cargo min effective -20% or total min -25% if offset by additional improvements) Sails >= WR >= Rowing (if applicable) > armor (for acceleration) > turn 

Another benefit of having the shipbuilding skill and getting the skill up is it helps you to be able to make FS parts (parts to use for special shipbuilding). FS part making is actually quite a lucrative business opportunity if you know the markets well and have the space/patience to do it.

Most FS parts require some crafting skill (typically casting, handicrafts, or sewing). Some will also require SB levels. If this is the case, and their is a dual requirement, the skill listed second can be leeched from another player (and in some cases, it must). There are some good guides out there to teach you to level your crafting skills; I've used all three skills (and even cooking/storage!) to make FS parts.

As mentioned previously, there are several types of FS parts: Hulls, Sails, Gunports, Armaments. Sometimes armaments are subdivided into an additional category (on Ivyro). Let's go over a couple of examples, and how to make them:

This is the hull requred to make "official" (paneled) Vaisseau and Armored Vaisseau. Here's the items we'll need, modified from Ivyro:

To make them, you need r15 handicrafts, and r16 shipbuilding. However, there are no jobs that have both handicrafts and shipbuilding favored/preferred, so we have a problem. if you remember from above, the second skill listed (shipbuilding, in this case) may be leeched from another player. So, the crafter must be r15 handicrafts (+handicrafts items/skills will work), and must be fleeted with someone who is at least r16 shipbuilding. The items needed are a Heavily Armoured Sterncastle, 6 improved steel sheets, and a Large 3 decked hull. According to Ivyro, you can make this part at any shipyard master in Seville, Lisbon, Venice, Marseilles, Amsterdam, and/or London. But wait....I don't have a large 3 decked hull! Looks like we're gonna have to make one. When I pull up Large 3 decked hull on ivyro, it says I need to make one at Trujillo, Pernambuco, Caracas, Cayenne, Willemstad, or Grand Cayman (any nation's colony will do), and the requirements are that the crafter (the one making the part) have r8 handicrafts and r15 shipbuilding (again, he can be fleeted with a r15+ friend; assuming you have r8 handicrafts and are currently in a job that permits r15 SB, you won't need one though.), and we need 40 lumber, 1 processed lumber, and 1 metal work. Ok, so if I am the crafter, I make sure I meet the handicraft requirement, I drag my r15 SB buddy to Grand Cayman (or whatever nation I belong to's national colony in the Caribbean), take my material and craft a large 3 decked hull at the shipyard there.

Now that I have the base hull, let's head back to Europe, to any nation's capital you have an investment in (only the crafter needs to have an investment there). Assuming I meet the requirements to craft the hull, my faithful SB friend minerguy1 and I head to the shipyard, take the hull we just made + 6 improved steel sheets and a Heavily Armoured Sterncastle (I actually have the materials with me to make several), and click on the shipwright, selecting the "production" button:

Now select the recipe for Official Large 3 decked hull:

What you should see is the production screen looking like this:

Ok now you'll need to manually select the Heavily armoured sterncastle you want to use, and click it, and it should now look like so:

Now, click produce, and you'll now have an Official large 3 decked hull (must have 800k investment or more in the city you build it in):

Now we can make an officially paneled Vaisseau/Armoured Vaisseau of our choice (assuming you have an investment in the capital for which panel/color we chose).

The military wooden panels were recently released on GAMA. When paneled onto a ship, they have the same speed as teak paneled ships do, but slightly more durability and keep the stylish color that corresponds to the country from where it was made.

Military and Military wooden panel colors:

Dutch: Orange

English: White

French: Purple

Ottoman: Green

Portuguese: Blue

Spanish: Yellow

Swedish*: Light blue

*The Swedish military wooden panel is a memorial album reward. To obtain it you must make all 7 military wooden panelings (one from each nation). Since each nation requires an investment, only those who have defected to all 7 nations can accomplish this, and as a memorial album award, only one is given per player. For these reason (and the high requirements to make the panels) I expect these to be quite expensive.

I really like the venetian paneling, so I will show you how to make one. Here's the information given from Ivyro (This is a new part, so the actual in-game item name is not in Ivyro yet):

So, we need 3 OSPs (Original Ship Permits), 2 Special Ship Paint (this is NOT the same thing as sail paint; they currently can only be plundered, I buy mine from a friend for 150m each), and a teak paneling. Once I have the mats, minerguy1 and I are gonna make them. For this time, he is my fleeted SB (he is r20, so meets the r18 requirement), and I am the handicrafter (I am r18 handicrafts). So he and I head up to Venice, go to the shipwright there, and click production:

Next I select the recipe (which will only appear if I meet the requirements to make it):

Now, the screen comes up to make the panel:

So I click production:

Ta-da! I now have a venetian military wooden paneling.

I think you get the general process by which panels are made now. Using source information from Ivyro, I have compiled a spreadsheet in the section that I find very useful, which contains (to my knowledge) all the player-makeable FS parts in the game, what town they are made in, which NPC makes them, what the requirements to make them are, what materials are needed to make them, investment/development required, etc.

I have compiled all the FS parts that are player-makable into a database. There are images of each type [Hulls, Sails, Gunports, Armaments, and Armament (panel)], and the entire database can be downloaded from google drive, should you need to sort it or have trouble viewing it here: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwmpUgAdvC2-em1WaGNHWU9GTGs&authuser=0

This file is not to be placed on any guild websites without my direct permission. This took an enormous amount of time, and it's not right for it to be distributed in any way that I do not see fit. If you are having trouble accessing the file, let me know and I can help, or if you see any errors, please also let me know. I have tried to include the name of the part, which ship classes can use them, what they do to stats, how they are obtained, Where it is obtained, which NPC the recipe can be found at, what materials are needed, what ships it can be used to make (for hulls), and any other relevant information. All of this information comes directly from Ivyro. The images below may be too large for you to view in the space here, if so, right click them and either select view image or download image. This information is not a bad backup to have in the event that Ivyro goes down (and it has from time to time)!

*NOTE* I apologize about the hulls image looking a little too big for the format here, but I figured it was more important that you be able to read the information than have them be aesthetically pleasing.

You'll often see people selling ships, claiming that they are good or well modded, and occasionally see some "god mods", or someone saying that a ship is a bad mod/fail mod/needs to be dismantled: What does this mean exactly?

Well, there are a LOT of things that can play into how well someone views a ship to be modded. It can be a reference to how well the improvements turned out, meaning that the ship got a lot of fails, successes or great successes. Also the quality of the ship parts (whether they used a lot of Astro ship parts or went with very few) is a major component of how mods to a ship are weighed. The stats the builder chose to focus on and build up are a huge component of this as well, as is the grade/status. Another important thing that plays into this is the ship skills the builder chose, and what they set the cargo to. Finally personal preference, opinion, and even personal investment (how much money/time/parts/etc. the owner has sunk into the ship) can have an influence on how some people view a ship.

Let's look at an example. I have here 3 versions of a modified special frigate.

Mod plan 1 has all sorts of problems. It's not full durability, they took cargo to max effective cargo, they overshot the number of required sails by 68, the armor and turn isn't that good, etc. The only way it could be much worse is if they choose skills that nobody wanted!

Mod plan 2 is what I would consider to be a good mod. No Astro ship parts, but the skills are good, the cargo is set to min effective, the armor and dura are maxed and turn is very high. All in all a very solid mod.

Mod plan 3 is what I would call a "great" or a "god" mod, in that they used a lot of Astro parts to do so but max a lot of stats. Each sail is a Astro sail (which makes the price of the build exponentially higher), and a couple of other Astro parts are used. In addition (see the "revise" column) the builder got several great successes he hypothetically needed (this is just an example; I don't recommend putting this many NC sails and parts onto every boat, and definitely not to a MSpecF!). In my mind, a "god mod" ship is one with very good stats and numerous great successes in the build.

What Caddy here sees as a bad mod, my friend might find a perfect fit or a good mod for an aide, or a good bargain, a good grinding ship for the price or a great ship for shipwrecking, etc. There are no absolutes in how well a ship is modded, and always know that no matter how good your build is, someone can always build one better, so don't agonize on having something totally perfect, especially since fusions beyond G3 are so expensive/difficult! Also, don't criticize someone's ship/mod lightly; in our game, people take a lot of pride in their ships, and if you think another player's ship is a bad mod, you should keep that to yourself!

If you tried to put an optional skill on a ship, and it didn't work, 1 of 3 things has happened:

1) You already have the maximum number of optional skills on that ship. Remember the default maximum number of optional skills you can have is 2 (with fusion, you can add more, via skill inheritance and skill slot addition; see those sections in Part 2 for more information).

2) You did not add the right parts for the skill. No substitutions can be made, regardless of if you find a part with the same/better stats. I have seen this happen a number of times. Double check Ivyro and/or UWOtool to make sure you have the right parts before you try to put an optional skill onto a ship.

3) The ship you are trying to put the optional skill onto cannot have the skill as an optional skill. Double check Ivyro and/or UWOtool to make sure that your ship can accept the skill.

*NOTE* Ivyro and UWOtool are great websites, but are not 100% factually correct in everything. Sometimes a ship will have hidden optional skills that the non-Astro counterpart on Ivyro does not show. In a couple of ships (the one that comes to my mind is Expedition Trade Clipper) some ship skills show up that are actually not available on GAMA. I tried 3x to put galley on an Expedition Trade Clipper for a client once. Turns out that both Ivyro AND UWOtool were wrong, and that galley cannot be added to Expedition Trade Clipper as an optional skill (however, it can be added to the ship as an original skill; this is what we ended up doing).

Not every ship needs to be a full-delphin g4+ Astro god mod ship. Sometimes its best to know your limits! Does it make sense to you to spend 4-5b paneling, dismantling, and modding a ship that cost 1.5b? You can play smarter, and still have a good ship. Here's an example of a budget mod CIS - a decent ship, and not a single Astro ship part used (in both a g1 and g3 version):

Simple, yet effective. No need to max out every stat - for what it is, this is a nice entry-level PVP vessel in either configuration.

You can't have it all

There are very few ships that can really "have it all" and be total perfect. Here's the only examples I have ever seen of a truly "perfect" ship, 5 skills, -25% cargo, literally every stat maxed (I helped develop the plan, and he won the OGPlanet's light ship competition with it!):

Not every ship has low stat maximums and 13 mods though. Pick your battles. Mod what is most important to you, and don't try to have "a bit of everything", particularly for battle ships. It doesn't matter how many Astro parts you have on a ship, you simply can't have everything all maxed stats no matter how you do it. A ship that has a few stats that are considered "strengths" maxed is a lot better than a ship that is mediocre at everything.

Nothing really grinds my gears like seeing a ship like this. Does your Big Trading Clipper really need max cannons? Of course not. Does your MIS need cannon slots added? The answer is still no. 98 cannon slots is enough for a bow, stern, and 5x Cannon/Carronade 16's. So why would you add more, if the base (max) is 120? "but, but, I want the bar to be full!" Anyone who will not buy a ship because the cannon bar isn't full, is an guy. You do not need more cannons than you can possibly load; in fact doing so will force you into a smaller cargo, and will NOT positively affect your speed (remember speed is affected by not CARGO but HOLD space, that is, the total room for guns/crew/cargo on the boat, not cargo itself; refitting will not make you any faster). Save what little room you have on your maritime ships for lumber/munitions/water and don't fence yourself in like this! PM me in game if you have further questions about this, it's a common misconception.

The components usually required for adding ship skills are typically less essential to performance than those that are added specifically to improve the stats. As you go through mods, the required ship building level increases with the number of improvements done, and I notice that I typically get more GS in earlier mods. For this reason, I move my ship skills to the end. Make sure you pay close attention to the ship parts needed for those skills if you do this; you won't get a second chance. I had a client who unfortunately thought he could change out a part to get +2 extra turn from a mod; as a result, he didn't get the skill he had planned on doing, so don't let this happen to your ship. Here's an example in a plan I recently made for one of my best clients:

Notice EA is the last skill to be added. This is intentional; EA has only one armament requirement, so if an adjustment needs to be made, it can be done in that last armament slot.

This is especially true for Astro ships, or for ships with a lot of Astro parts on them (Delphin Storms, Delphin Gaffs, Shipside Tanks, etc.). 99% of the time, the market value you sell a ship for will be less than what you put into it. You may ask, "so why should I build ships at all?". Well, the answer is that you pay the difference to get exactly the ship you want. If you plan to resell a ship you built up, you need to suck it up and realize you may take a loss on it. Don't build ships with the intention of marking them up and reselling, or you'll get burned most of the time!

Anyone can build ships, and there are many r20 shipbuilders who will fleet you for a pretty low price. However, if you have a brand new really nice ship, and you want to make sure it's done right, consider hiring a reputable shipbuilder you can trust to build with you. I call this "full service shipbuilding", meaning that the shipbuilder and you discuss what exactly you want, what the purpose for the vessel is, work together to create a mod plan, then mod/grade it according to the plan. Unless you trust the player implicitly, I cannot advise handing a ship to them, and even then it is best to enter a trade agreement, for your own protection, any shipbuilder who is reputable will not mind such an arrangement. I think it's a good idea to find one guy who is your go-to guy for these kinds of situations. I am that guy for a number of players; however, I have been having trouble keeping up with demand lately, so if I cannot help, then I can almost certainly refer you to someone who can :)

I see so many people trying to sell 8/8 modded ships, and when people ask for a price check, they give a number. This is not really an accurate assessment, as not all 8/8 MIS (or whatever ship it is) are made equally. I don't know how they do it, but some people do horrible jobs modding ships, some so bad that they deserve to be dismantled. If you don't know a lot about what ship stats should look like, get a second or third opinion. I suggest you ask a company mate or a friend; however, if you don't know anyone knowledgeable in what a good mod or bad mod should be, then you have a couple of options - my first suggestion would be to try to make a mod plan yourself on uwotool.com and see how the ship in question stacks up. My second suggestion would be to ask merchant chat if the mods are good or not, as a lot of knowledgeable shipbuilders frequent that world channel.

As I do mods, I check back to my plan frequently to see if I got any GS and/or fails to my mods so far. By doing this, I can adjust my plan if I see a number of GS/fails in critical areas. To do this, compare the values you actually have on the ship with what you see on the plan. Uncheck any mods you haven't done, and adjust the grade value to the current grade if you have not finished grading it (and don't forget to change your cargo too, if that is different from the final outcome). If that number deviates from the expected value, input the value into the "improve" column on UWOtool. Then, adjust your plan back to the final settings, and you can see what it should look like when you're done. This leads me to my next segment about UWOtool.com

Video Tutorial for this section at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FurAUlH8cA

Since I found out about this website, I've been force-feeding it to all my clients and fellow shipbuilders. It's a fantastic resource. Many old-school shipbuilders still use Ivyro's mod planner, which is not too bad, but UWOtool is superior in so many ways. It is considerably more user-friendly, it can take fusion into account for mod plans, and the ship skills are on all ships, not just the non-Astro versions. 

I'll give you a little tour of what a mod plan looks like on UWOtool:

When you first arrive to UWOtool.com, you may need to click the button to convert it to English, indicated by the "Start" arrow (I have only had to do this the first time I visited the site). I know this image is a bit busy, so I will go through the rest of the arrows/boxes by number. I have color coded some of the boxes that are close to one another for clarity.

1) Enter the name or part of the name of the ship you are looking for here. You can narrow your search criteria in the box above this by filtering for a specific class of ships, or for ships of a certain level.

2) Ships that match your search criteria will appear in the drop down menu below. In this plan, we want to look at an Ambush Vaisseau, so we will click that one. The basic ship stats should show up in the Basic Information box at the top right.

3) In this box, there is a pull down menu where you can select your ship skills. Opening this menu and selecting a skill will make the skill name show up in teal in this column, and also the parts needed for that ship skill show up the same color in the areas to the right that indicate parts.

4) This dropdown menu can be used to select sails. Note that only sails usable for the ship will show up here (i.e. no small sails), so if you don't see it you cannot use it on the ship (the one exception to this rule is the new Augmented Skysail; it is not on UWOtool yet).

5) This button will open up the window to select your armaments, which looks like this:

To select an armament, you must click the slot in which you wish to add it, then simply click the port. Note that these items can be sorted by clicking on the column headings above (in this illustration, I have sorted them by the amount of armour they add), which is extremely useful to filter out parts by the amount of bonus stats they add. *NOTE* a few new Astro FS parts are not given full names yet (Augmented mast is listed as "xxx935", while augmented sailors's cabin is "xxx", so you may have to do a bit of research if you use these parts).

6) This drop-down menu is used to select original skills. Only original skills that may be applied to the vessel show up.

7) This orange box is where you select your paneling. Changing panels can possibly change the "base performance" column for durability or sails.

8) This "G Rank" drop down menu is used to change the current grade of the ship. Doing so may alter the bonuses received from grade, indicated by arrow #13 ("G").

9) This yellow box is where you change the ship "form" (from ship rebuilding/fusion). Doing so may alter the bonuses received from grade, indicated by arrow #13 ("G").

10) This blue box is where you set the cabin/cannons/hold space. You may enter custom values here if you chose, or click the buttons. For crew, the left button indicates min crew (75) and the right button (225) indicates max crew. The same hold true with guns, but there are a couple of extra buttons in between (80 indicates the max guns needed without using a bow/stern turret, 98 indicates the max needed with a bow/stern turret).  For hold, there are 4 buttons. The leftmost button (510) indicates total minimum hold space (-25% hold, with penalty). The second button from the left indicates minimum effective hold (-20%, no penalty). The third button from the left (822) indicates maximum effective hold (+20%, no penalty), while the final button on the bottom (850) indicates total maximum hold (+25%, with penalty). Any penalties or bonuses to turn from low hold will show up in the column indicated by arrow 11.

11) This column is where penalties or bonuses from hold will appear.

12) This green box is where you may select your fusion skill bonuses. Remember, you only get to select a skill fusion bonus at g1, g3, and g6. Any addition to status caused by these bonuses will show up in the column indicated by arrow #13 ("G")

13) This column is where bonuses to stats due to grade are accounted for.

14) This is where the range of improvement stats from both special shipbuilding (mods) and ship rebuilding (fusion) are accounted for. The lower number to the left side indicates the minimum improvement possible (meaning that all mods were fails). The middle number (in blue) indicates the "expected value", operating under the assumption that all mods are a regular success. The number to the side indicates the total max, if all mods were a "great success. The numbers are added to the base stats in the "Improve result" column, and should give you an estimate of what the final result will look like.

15) This column you can check or uncheck mods, as you do them, and compare them with your expected values. In this example, mod 9 has just been completed. we compare it to the expected, and see that there have been a number of great successes. Durability is +10 from expected values, vertical sails is +10, turn is +3, WR is +1, Armor is +2 and crew is +4. So, we put these values in the "revise" column, recheck all of our mods, and we can get an idea of what the ship should look like when it is finished after all the GS.

16) This column is a manual adjustment. I use this column to account for great success/fails on mods.

That should cover the bases for regular shipbuilding. For information about the ship rebuilding system (fusion), see Part 2 - Ship Rebuilding