As a person who owns the 14th Barge ever sold I can assure everyone that it has absolutely no advantage at all,I have logged over 100 hours on it and am quite familiar with piloting it,one time I got stuck in some rocks due to a trade lane interruption and was pirated 4 times before I got underway again .I haven't played with it much lately as I can do much better with 5k's,still it is nice to own one because you really have to earn it.