Heavy handling and surprising first-rate speed

First rates brought the firepower needed to crack a hard target, but their size imposed major costs in crew, money, and maneuverability. Descriptions of them as nimble or fast therefore require comparison with other first rates, not with purpose-built cruisers. Victory and similar Royal Navy ships combined coppered bottoms and efficient hull forms with the stability and stores capacity Britain required. In favorable weather their enormous sail plans could even let them overtake frigates, revealing how much performance designers extracted from a fundamentally heavy platform.