i was always told that it was a weight for the 'sailor' and all the extra things he would have, like personal kit, food, the extra tools, spare parts and the like for what ever role he had on the ship and yes even the fuel to haul that weight around.

so try not to think of it as a weight for a sailor think of it as a weight for eveything he will need for a long cruise away from a fully stocked base, you will soon get to those kind of numbers

The logic is the group of enlisted sailors.  Gunners would include all the associated personnel in the operation of a pair of 3-barrel guns.  That would probably be 30-50 men. 

Repairman, think of him as the fire department.

Engineers: think of him as the Engine compartment and the dozens of personnel down there.

The Bridge Operator isn't one guy, but an entire command and control operation from the control bridge.

It makes the game work.  

If this was the roundtable for the game 10 years ago - and we were looking at small fixes, yes the sailor weight issue should be addressed.  At this point, Tinkering with the weight would throw off ship balance.

Numerical weight representation of a sailor isn't a big deal is it?  Why so fixated with numbers?

In this case sailors weighing 5.5times due to a programming error handicaps several ships in large and small ways.

Destroyers get hit the hardest as they can can waste 20% of their available weight due to this. Other classes of ships suffer less but hundreds or thousands of extra tons on each ship slowing it down and eating up tonnage better used on several knotts of speed or large chunks of missing armor.

Now you actually have made a point. Putting in an "overheat" function to bypass engines when maximum speed is "exactly-as-it-says-on-the-tin", was a bad idea in the first place when this game was programmed.

The Shimakaze was prototype super-destroyer that could move 41knots, which was considerably faster than most destroyers which moved an average maximum of 35knots. Ingame people go crazy and move 70knots in one.

People would cause Flame Wars if somebody tried to remove "Overheat" speeds. It would make the bonuses from Engineer crews worthless.

It's not just a speed issue.  There are some gun sets on certain ships that are seen as too heavy to be practical but those would come into play - possibly having an adverse influence on the game.  A full crew G Cesare1914 would be a mess for example.  People tinker with many weight related things and we haven't even touched armor.  If the weight issue for sailors were to be reviewed, I'd imagine that the weight for the rest of the ship would also be adjusted and we'll end up with the exact same situation as now just with different numbers.

The excess sailor weight is a fundamental problem that indirectly affects others.

Missing Guns are a large problem.  Its common to see ships with stripped loadouts such as battleships with only 1 or 2 turrets to "armor-whore", or carrier and carrier-hybrids without using any weapons slots even for self-defense.

Secondary weapons are very useful, but optional. Many a battleship player absolutely refuses to carry anything but main cannons.

Armor is optional. Thats somewhat fair because armor extremely expensive. In some cases armor may cost more than the ship itself. Excess sailor weight means less armor even if you have the money.

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It cant really be enforced that people carry guns in every slot, so alot of people just shave off guns for more armor. Even if the sailor weight was made reasonable, people would probably just use is to armor more.

I wonder, is there a maximum limit on armor, besides weight limits?