The reason for the current downtime was because our hosting provider decommissioned the server hardware that PirateCraft was hosted on and needed to move us to new better hardware, Sadly the 60 Minutes maximum transfer time I was quoted ended up being 2 days downtime.
We are now back up and alive, you should be able to connect using our host mc.piratemc.com to protect from any future host changes or use our direct IP 188.165.46.86:25565 as you can now see we are using the default minecraft port so 188.165.46.86 should work too.

Minecraft 1.6.4 & 1.7

The recently updated minecraft 1.6.4 popping out the blue didn’t give us any new features or fix any existing problems, it seemed to only patch the hack that let people force OP privileges.

Here is the full 1.6.4 changelog:

 1.6.4

    Includes 1.6.3 fixes.
        1.6.3 skipped, released as pre-release only.[2]

    Added server.properties option player-idle-timeout
        Kicks players from server when idle for that many minutes, defaults to disabled (0).

Fixed 1 bug: []

    MC-15547 – Structures (witch huts, nether fortresses etc.) don't get saved with the world file
        In order for current structures (Witch Huts, Nether Fortresses, etc.) to be saved to the world file, the player must load the appropriate chunks within the game manually. The game will not automatically scan worlds and update structure data globally. After this is completed, structures will be compatible in all snapshots starting at Snapshot 13w37b
    Fixed handshake exploit

PirateCraft will stay on Bukkit 1.6.2 Stable until a Beta version of 1.6.4 is released by Bukkit, as usual bukkit takes months to play catchup, maybe with these small changes a beta will be pushed sooner than usual.

There is no final decision for when the 1.7 update drops, the upcoming changes in 1.7 are so dramatic if we wanted to play in the new world generation we would have to start a new world, the biggest downside to 1.7’s new terrain generation is sea biomes have been nurfed, nearly half the size of what they are now, not too handy for a Pirate themed minecraft server, So the plan is to discuss and make a community decision closer to the release of 1.7.

Changes & Future Development

Recent changes

• Changed: Missive – Auto broadcast system was changed to a better system that lets admins assign messages specifically to ranks, Lieutenant (Donators) & Staff have new Missive’s.
• Added: Staff chat channel for private staff chat
• Added: NoLagg to monitor and remove entities that could lagg the server
• Added: Live mob locations on the livemap, Still needs tweaking.
• Added: The ability to set messages for entering and exiting claimed land
• Spawn: Removed enhancement table & Ender Chest from the library at spawn
• Spawn: Terraforming public island in-front spawn that cannot be claimed.
• Spawn: Is PVP & Monster free

Work in progress

• Moving Ships, We have tested two moving ships plugins both have major faults that need to be fixed by their developers, we are waiting for these to be fixed.
• PVP arena, An event needs to be held to build a PVP as a pirate community!
• Item Shops are being tested and configuration needs to be tweaked to limit shops so they can not be gamed, I am waiting for developers to include a whitelist config option to limit items that can be sold by players.
• Auto rank has been a problem since our statistics developer moved database storage and is neglecting to answer comments, So I will continue to upgrade players manually based on statistics I choose.
• Online statistics were also broken when the statistics plugin developer migrated databases, I need to re-code the entire front end to work with piratecraft, this may take a while, you may use /stats and /played in-game for a brief overview, I will also add more stats to these in-game commands.
• GriefPrevention and Siege have some amazing new features coming up in later releases for teamwork.
• Testing another Flag plugin to handle PVP, Monsters, Claim Messages and teleportation for claims, to disable people warping to sethomes in other peoples claims.
• Automatic Donator Rank Plugin, I plan on getting this added in the near future, at present donators need to be assigned manually by a member of staff, current minimum donation is £10 for the Lieutenant rank, these people keep us alive!
  A donator page will be released on piratecraft of all current and previous donators that have helped keep us going, I will also offer donators the chance to write a small segment if they wish and link to a URL of their choice.