Is a Ship Chasing You?

@gianni001
I'm never close enough to a storm to try that, but I'll be hype when I get the chance! Thank you for reminding me to try.

I near exclusively Captian a Galleon.
My crew are often muppets, from playtime fatigue or from the use of "substances akin to Grog". While I'm a "sober hen", they can be as reactive as a Galleon turning.

Storms, however, never slow us.
I just order the crew to angle the sails & hide below deck, keeping me oriented by watching the map.
It would be minimal work to give a chase into & through a storm for us...

A "skilled" Gallleon crew, perhaps, can chase through a storm effectively enough to render the storm a non-obstacle. Perhaps I've just been unduely lucky.

I've won Galleon vs Galleon & Sloop fight in a storm.
With the enemy G sunk the Sloop fled out the rain and into the bright Bloodmoon. We waited for them to return to the map, which they did, but they sank quickly.

As such, I can't recommend driving into a storm to flee a Galleon.

Sloops are faster when sailing directly into the wind than galleons are. Galleons are faster with the wind at their backs than sloops are. Keep this in mind when plotting your escape route.

When being chased, open waters and red sea are death traps for sure. A skilled galleon will never lose a sloop even when facing the wind. They won't gain distance on you but if they are persistant they'll get you at some point.
I would add to the post a small list of very good islands to loose your opponents or crash them :
Shipwreck bay and the numerous rocks surrounding it.
Thieves haven for its "thread the needle" inner bay.
And my favorite, Mutineer rock. This island is an absolute nightmare for whoever doesn't have a good knowledge of the map. It shows as three islands on the main map, but the two northern islands are in fact linked by an underwater sand bank. Get enough speed to go through the bank and prepare for repairs. 9 out of 10 galleons will beach h*****n it, and if they don't get stuck, at least they will have to dedicate two people to repairs and bailing while you, prepared, can sail away after a hard turn. A galleon is sure fast, but not when there's only one guy manning all three sails by himself.

And then there's dumping your cargo overboard when you're briefly out of sight and then surrendering once you've got some distance between you and your dropped cargo.

After all;

Han Solo: Even I get boarded sometimes. Do you think I had a choice?

@ravrus
I agree; all ships need to raid empy fortresses for supplies, especially powder caskets, at the beginning of their playsession!

A Galleon able to effectively use "risky bomb boys" is a ROUGH opponet, Bloodmoon forbid their crew boards as you're pluggin' & bailin'.
That's my crew an Is' favorite method of resupplying our Galleon! We anchor right beside the sinking wreck an loot 'um; shotguns diswading the vengful survivors looking to board as we chew the body!

Powder Caskets are the WMDs, the knife in the back, & a sellable trade good if you reach port with any remaining!

@sgt-conley aye, once me and my friend had a sloop chasing us, so we waited until we were passing through some rocks, and then we dropped gun powder. Because of the rocks he couldn’t change course. Pretty satisfying sinking him :D

@dark-shadow9056
That's pretty fine thinking!

I did something similar.
A friend an I were in a treasure covered Sloop (skulls glowing with cosmic truth, right on the bow) being chased by a bloodthirsty Galleon. I taught my friend how to sink our colossal, clumsy opponet without firing a shot.
"Ram 'um!" he thought aloud; "Lead 'um into the Bloodmoon!".
"How about we sail right past that island next to us; surrounded by more crags than I have fingers." replied I.
And so he did, as max speed. Much to the dismay of my poor ol' heart.

I watched the Galleon get halfway through that forest before the sea took it.
My friend & I didn't check to see if they had treasure; we felt we'd tested our limits enough.

He's my helmsman now, of course!

Is a Ship Chasing you? Don't worry because you almost always will have the benefit unless the chaser is far better than the one being chased.