[Edward Edgemenace]

If you, like me, are quite sick of seeing Spanish ships sailing along, taking massive damage from your cannon-fire, yet steadily repairing while sailing, just slightly faster than your barrage can damage them, you can fight them with their own medicine:

When a boat is launched, have someone other than the boat owner grab the wheel right away. Don't even bother sailing anywhere...the boat owner must then recover the wheel and boot that person (you) off the wheel. Ship's owner can now sail normally. As soon as you take some damage, you can go to a repair spot and begin repairs. Using the F1 glitch described elsewhere, you can simultaneously repair all four repair spots and fire from a cannon. Until the ship is full health, or you are assassinated, the boat will continue to be repaired, faster than it can be damaged. Thank you, Graybeard, et al., for helping me figure this out, tonight.

No idea if Disney considers it a bug or a feature (some kind of reward, for when a spy tries to take over a boat?) but I for one, won't hold my breath waiting for them to fix it. Better now, to just have both sides have the same repair abilities...

Method refinements appreciated.