I definitely recommend you give the open beta a try though. The game does have some charm that lures you in.

PotBS’ ships are from between 1660 and 1740, with rare exceptions where plans from that era weren’t available (read: Galleons). Some ship plans are a bit more recent, but they were “retrofitted” as they would have been in the appropriate time. There’s a 3D Steering Committee in place to offer advice for community shipwrights, and they have a watchful eye on period-appropriateness of ships that are to be included in the game.

So, no clipper for you

Yep. You nailed it. Its still fun, but that’s exactly it.

The Open Sea is travel, not exploration. I too was hoping that at least with the “go intercept some pirates/smugglers/bad guys” missions, for example, that you’d well, have to actually go exploring to find them or their hideout rather than have the Longboat Coxswain whisk you away to a cove full of their ships or their beachfront hideaway.

More time consuming, yes, but more immersive.

You can upgrade your hull and your sails and you can of course buy ships with better everything (or steal someone else’s if you’re a pirate).

PotBS does a great job at the Ship combat and sailing, there’s no doubt about that.

There’s a bunch of yacht race simulators that take real conditions, sails, hull design, everything into account, but yachts are not fighting ships.

Also, I wonder if PotBS limits its ships in time, or if you can get super fast ships like clippers

While sailing you’ll see other player ships and NPC’s but it’s like sailing on a huge scaled back map. It has its own charm in a way but lacks in the “exploration” feel.

There are no weather effects such as rain that make sailing more difficult. There are winds though which are usually static in one direction that will cause you to have to know how to sail into them and out of them to get the most out of your sails. There are upgrades to your ship and skills you can obtain that make sailing with the wind better. There’s also no ability to take the enemy’s wind unfortunately.

You have the ability to raise and lower your sailes (up arrow and down arrow) and the ability to turn left and right (right and left arrow). The tacking and jibing is technically done automatically but you can control the sailability through the use of the arrow keys.

If you sail directly at the wind you’re not going to move much at all. Your sails will deflate. Some ships are better at sailing against the wind, etc. You go much faster if you use currents on the open sea and if you sail with the wind at your back.

Sailing is semi realistic. There are some times that I question if a ship could have really done what it did but overall it has a lot of believability.

Believe me when I say the last thing you want to do is get stuck in the open ocean without a current or the wind in your favor… it could be a PITA to have to make your way across the Caribbean against the wind.