ahem, does anyone remember swimming back in 1.7? that was absolutely horrid, its pretty identical to what you are suggesting because boats back then broke every 2 seconds.

before i get into the bulk of this remember- PIRATES HAD ROWBOATS.

what you, actually, the BE (based on the likes from that post) are suggesting will destroy the playerbase. plugin ships are ineffective in pretty much everything they are meant to be for many reasons. They are 1. slow as hell 2. easy as hell to destroy even without firespread and 3. lag the server when they are used in numbers. also, spawn is absolutely surrounded in oceans, and if a new player wishes to make an island base they would have to endure bobbing up and down for an eternity since they cant even make a ship cause of lack of sheep around spawn.

this is a horrible idea.