I've got to say, I was majorly disappointed. My friends and I got on expecting to enjoy ship on ship combat, but when we tried to fight other ships, they would run away because all they had to do was turn in chests that they get from the islands... It was probably the lamest way to play an inherently PvP based gamemode. It was like they wanted to play PvE, but accidentally went into the arena!
I guess my suggestion is lower the amount you gain for chests so the focus is on combat, not cowardly running your ship around in a circle until your crew members return from getting chests.
I can't out run a Galleon with a Galleon.
Hopefully the 2v2's Sloop mode is better, I will check it out eventually.