"Clear for Action!"

[Dobbs]

Has anybody given any thought to "clearing for action" and how it might be represented in the game? I've been pondering it and have some ideas, but was curious if that territory had already been explored.

Things I thought might be interesting are:

1) What extra damage does a ship that has not cleared for action take? I was thinking that the firing player pulls an "E" chit for every successful artillery hit chit. This is to reflect that the hammocks are not up and the gun deck not cleared of partitions.

2) How long does it take to clear for action? Each turn, a player clearing for action pulls two chits from the "E" collection (one chit if the sailors are lacking experience) during the planning phase. A player must pull three "Crew Loss" chits (no more than one a turn is counted) to clear for action. If "0"s are drawn, nothing happens. After the first crew loss chit is drawn, the owning player may start to load the broadsides. After the second crew loss chit is drawn, the ship may fire at half strength (rounded up). After the third, play proceeds normally.

What do you think?