Hey, Im on the last one, been at it for over a year now. Can recommend it, it’s a good read. Wont spoil :)

some 20 years back: Suse 7.0, my first PC, reinstalled it every week, cause me dumb dumb back then and it was not very easy to use as well.

well, since its in the Forgotten Realms settings, access to cannons are rare and limited - and really expensive - where a small island of a weird gnome sect in the far south west of the continent hold the monopoly to guns and cannons. Mostly, mages and other magical users would be employed to either power the sails and/or defend from attacks.

as for the maneuvering part, one can roleplay a ship chase, running mages dry, and then the more powerful ship has the chance to get away or attack the remaining fighting crew as one would. And since a ship will fight for its very existence, unless the opponent are slavers, every man will fight, which shouldn’t be fought out unless you group all combatants into one “group” and roll for them to see how they are doing.

More ideas:

• Slavers are a topic in such games. One could think about the wealth distribution among the crew, among certain factions, regions, and flesh out the region accordingly.
• Check the campaign guide for trades countries would ship overseas, what items could they want to smuggle?
• What kind of taboos exist on land, which your crew might flee from and become Privateers?
• How are Pirates supplied?
• Where is their landing port, safe haven? How is it defended when the main part of the fleet is gone? Access to repairs? How do they recruit additional crew?
• What enemies are there? What “Kingpins” of the Underworld (can also be intelligent Monsters) exist, what foes? (how a about a beholder “kraken”?)
• How are the landlubbers acting towards the crew, what kind of people are there? Do you have primitives, voodoo shamans and a carribbean setting or do you prefer the privateer British setting, with more refinements and fortified towns - or something in between?

Source: FR Campaign Guide & Drizzt Books

notable mentions to check out:

• (TSR/2nd ED): Pirates of the Fallen Stars
• (D20): Corsair the definitive Guide to Ships / Gareth-Michael Skarka