"realistic" ship design.

[geoschmo]

Well, maybe solar sails should be protected by shields. If the shields are a bubble around the whole ship.

There is also the physical properties of the sail to consider. They are very large, very thin things. Perhaps the weapons would go right through them, making small holes and such, but not seriously degrading their performance until a lot of damage was done, or a hit landed on some vital mounting point which could be protected by the armor.

There are also theories now about magnetic or electrostatic solar sails where the sail itself is not a phisical object that could be damaged. In taht case you'd have to hit the generator and that could certainly be protected by armor.

Geo