In the game now, haven't experienced any problems. I bought a brig, and customised all of my ships. :P Unfortunately, I can't sail and try the brig out, because I'm very close to mastering and I'm planning a party.
There is a bit of strangeness going on with the servers, however, because Hassigos is full and everything else is quiet (even Abassa!?). It might just be all the players clicking Random so they can just get in with the action, but it's quite odd anyway.