Dooku's solar sailer

The title of this article is conjectural.

Although this article is based on official information from the Star Wars Legends continuity, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

Warning: This infobox has missing parameters: designer, navy, type and unrecognized parameters: modules, class, era, taskforce

"Your solar sailer is very beautiful. It's a pretty rare ship."

―Hondo Ohnaka^[src]

Dooku's solar sailer was a heavily-modified Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop belonging to Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus. Dooku used this yacht to escape from First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY. Tyranus's vessel was a unique mix of Geonosian engineering and pre-Republic Gree technology. The vessel was piloted by a FA-4 pilot droid and could travel through realspace and hyperspace.

Characteristics

Design

Built on the spaceframe of a Huppla Pasa Tisc Shipwrights Collective Punworcca 116-class sloop, Dooku's solar sailer was a unique melding of Geonosian and Gree technology. The sloop was 15.2 meters long, 4.6 meters wide, and 4.8 meters deep. Like many Geonosian starships, it had two multifunctional bow prongs, with an orb-like cockpit module positioned between the two, and a crew hold at the stern of the craft.^[1]

The dark surface hull of the solar sailer was composed of heavy metals that were preciously rare on Geonosis. The interior of the craft was tailored to Dooku's refined tastes and his role as leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and was fitted with an extensive databook library, strategic chart displays, and ornate decorations and sleeping quarters.^[1]

Armament

Lightly armed, the solar sailer carried rows of 84 narrow-beam tractor-repulsor emitters along the bow prongs that could act as offensive grapples. Additionally, the cockpit module could be replaced by a dedicated weapons or sensor orb if necessary, and the piloting controls routed to the main hold.^[1]

Propulsion

The most unique aspect of Dooku's solar sailer was its sail, an ancient Gree artifact supplied by Dooku himself. Unlike most solar sails, which unfurled to moon-like diameters and were pushed by tachyon streams or ultraviolet lasers, Dooku's unique sail had no discernible power source. Dooku's sail was composed of an exotic matter that reflected otherwise-undetectable supralight emissions, and achieved great performance across the entire galaxy with a much smaller diameter than most sails.^[1] The independence afforded by such a unique ship enhanced Dooku's mystique in Geonosian eyes, and a number of soldier drones even came to believe that Dooku's ship flew by magic.^[2]

The solar sailer was also equipped with a conventional repulsorlift, and the tractor beam emitters along the bow prongs could serve as steering aids when there were surrounding objects to push and pull against. The spread of ray shield energies around the prongs could additionally be adjusted to provided extra mobility when in atmosphere. Dooku tended to rely on an FA-4 pilot droid to fly his vehicle.^[1]

History

SolorSailer-DB — Dooku's solar sailer with its solar sail deployed.

Dooku had this sloop presented to him as a gift from Poggle the Lesser. As of 32 BBY, shortly after joining the Sith Order,^[3] Count Dooku had procured a unique ancient "solar" sail from an antiques dealer in the Gree Enclave to add to his sloop. The sail collected an undetectable power source to achieve great speeds with ease unmatched by conventional sails. Archduke Poggle was pleased to have ancient technology augment the sloop, as Geonosis had a long sailing heritage dating back centuries.^[1] Fourteen standard days before the First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY, the Senate Bureau of Intelligence confirmed eyewitness reports that Dooku had been spotted earlier in the week visiting the Gree Enclave, purportedly in search of valuable antiques.^[4]^[5]

At the beginning of the Clone Wars on Geonosis, Dooku had his solar sailer docked in his hangar. He fled the Battle of Geonosis in it after being waylaid by Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Yoda. He then rendezvoused with his master, Darth Sidious, at The Works on Coruscant.

Sidious Dooku Talk 1 — Dooku reporting to Darth Sidious via a hologram projector in his ship.

The solar sailer was used by Dooku throughout the Clone Wars as his regular means of travel to significant locations and escape from battles. It at one point sustained damage and crashed on Vanqor after a fiery battle in an attempt to escape from Kenobi and Skywalker as their army attacked his flagship. The pilot droid, along with all equipment on it, was taken apart among a band of Weequay pirates. The leader of the pirates, Hondo Ohnaka, commented on the ship's rarity and expensiveness and called it beautiful. To prevent any unnecessary antagonizing of the pirates, the count told Ohnaka to "feel free to help himself to it," unconcerned with his looting of the vessel at the moment. At some point after he escaped imprisonment in their base on Florrum, Dooku had his solar sailer recovered and repaired.^[6]

During the Battle of Coruscant, he met with General Grievous onboard the Invisible Hand after departing Tythe in the vessel.