This game is a PVEVP.
Won't ever change and that's great.
I love pvp and pve but I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't come here for the ship combat, I certainly did.
But what if you are one of those pirates who want to sail pirate infested waters without fear of pirates eh?
Simple..
Sail a brigantine.
You can do it solo.
Your biggest threat is the kraken and skelly Galleons
Anchor ball a skelly Galleon once and you are free from them
U-turn from kraken and you are away from it.
Now you can sail and hoard gold in a very relaxed manner. Unless its another brigantine! But even so, you both go so fast, you can easily lose them too with a anchor ball too.
It's unlikely you'll be chased often be brigantines. I say this because it's mostly sloops that have chased me in a period of over 6 months and only. 2 ships in those 6 months kept chasing and even then I did eventually lose them.
Now to perfect your PVE dream you need to learn how to sail and get comfortable with your brigantine.
This took me as a newbie, 1 week.
An uncomfortable week but it suddenly clicks and its actually pretty easy.
Now what you need to do is learn sail speeds so YouTube it or ask around here. Then get comfortable with it.
Try it.
I can guarantee you will find the seas much easier and you'll also be travelling a lot faster.
There doesn't need to be a PVE server. You just need a ship that gives you the speed to sail away.
It works. Give it a go.