I have seen many posts on how the sloop is the slowest ship. Here are my thoughts on the matter.
The sloop is the ship that is supposed to be able to outsail any vessel. It should let you be able to escape from a brig or galleon unless they get the jump on you. With the wind or against the wind. It should be very fast.
This game is not supposed to be historical accurate at all, but if I was designing my game to be built around 16th century vessels. I would probably at least do some research into, ya know, how they worked. And I really feel Rare did nothing of that sort. Galleons would reach bout 5 knots max. A Brig would reach about 11 knots max. A sloop would reach about 11 to 13 knots max. The galleon is a Indiaman, it is so obvious. The Brig is a Caravel(to me, it does not feel like a actual Brig or a Brigantine so I am doing it a big favor by letting it use the 11 knots of the Brig and not using the speed of either a Brigantine or a Caravel which is remarkably slower) . The sloop is a sloop.
And it's like look, I get it. It would be very boring sailing in a galleon or brig in the game only reaching a max speed of 5 or 6 knots with full wind. It would be boring. And that's okay. They can totally make those ships have a faster sailing speed. But if they up those ships speed, then they have to up the sloops speed.
A galleon or a brig, should never be able to ever in a million years think they would be able to catch up to a sloop. Ever.
It really makes me sad seeing how little research or thought went into the ships during development. They make a pirate game. And they make the ONE SHIP THAT PIRATES WOULD ACTUALLY USE THE MOST and make it so the others can be able to catch up to them at any given time unless they are into the wind. Pirates used sloops. They used sloops!!!!
It irks me when Rare has taken the classic pirating vessel and has designed the other ships to be able to catch up to this ship. That would never, ever happen. Ever. EVER. The majority of actual pirates used sloops. Small fleets of sloops. Why? Cause you can catch up to the merchant Indiaman only going 5 knots. You would not really see for example a pirate galleon chasing down a ship. You might, it is possible, but it would be rare. If the band of pirates had a big ship like that, they would try to keep in hidden until it was needed to fight the big boys that would eventually come. Like Blackbeard! He had a big ol' ship. A frigate, and even that, a ship literally built for speed and warfare only had a max speed of 8 knots. It wasn't until 1777 when the French came out with the second generation frigs that could reach up to 14 knots. Blackbeard died in 1718. Blackbeard also had plenty of sloops in his band. After the Queen Annes ran aground, he escaped using the Adventure, the sloop.
But to wrap up this rant/ history lesson. The sloop needs to go twice as fast in my opinion. Only a brig/sloop should be able to catch a sloop.