Interesting article on the Visby class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1215022,00.html
Things to note,
1) Largest vessel made from carbon fibre (stealth, strength,
weight-reduction, improved maintenance, or so they say)
2) The use of water jets for cutting instead of machine/drill
bits.
3) Runs on Windows NT (don't know which Service Pack they're
using..) 
Here's some hilarious excerpts stolen from slashdot
"10.1.3Initializing the Cannon for Rapid Fire
During combat it becomes necessary to increase your rate of fire to
ensure the destruction of enemy vessels. Microsoft does not endorse
the use of this software on fishing boats, pleasure craft, or
walruses.
From the Control Panel select "Forward Cannon." Right click on the
cannon and select "Properties." From the "Firing Rate" tab make
sure the "Fire at will" option, and click the apply button. If the
ship does not begin firing type "Regedit" at the command prompt.
Under "HKEY_CLASSES_LOCAL_MACHINE" search for "Fire Control" and
make sure the is a "Fire Control" entry in the registry. If
necessary, load the Forward Cannon 1.3 install CD and double click
the fcannon.reg file.
Once the cannon is installed, you may choose to test-fire a round.
You will be prompted with a dialog asking if the target was hit.
Clicking on No will take you to a web page with possible reasons
(non of which will actually apply) as to why the target was missed.
Some targets are not compatible with Windows and cannot be hit with
the forward Gun. "
And another
"Navigator: Captain, radar is picking up an iceberg 2 Nautical
miles ahead, just off the port bow.
Captain: No problem, that's plenty of time to steer clear.
Captain clicks the navigation display on NT
Clippy: It seems you are trying to steer, what would you like to
do?
* Steer Port
* Steer Starboard
Navigator: Captain, Icberg 1 mile ahead
Captain: (showing frustration) clicks Steer Starboard
Captain: This should handle it!
Clippy: How many degrees starboard would you liek to steer?
* 5
* 10
* 15
Captain uttering swedish curse words, clicks 10 degrees
Navigator Captain, Iceberg at 400 meters
Clippy: You clicked Turn Starboard and 15 degrees, it seems you are
trying to evade an Iceberg. Windows NE (Nautical Edition) has
several new features, just for this.
Clippy: Would you like to enable the "Evade Iceburg" Wizard?
Captain: $^@#$#%*, runs up to the wooden ships wheel
Captain: See, this is why the tried and true method works! turns
the wheel
Windows NE has detected a new device and is unable to find a driver
for it.
Captain: Aha! my son warned me about this, I have the driver right
here!
Windows NE: Windows NE has finished installing drivers for the
device "Ships Wheel", in order to use this device you must restart
windows. Click here to restart, or if you wish to restart later
click cancel. "[/b]