Any 'house rules' that I might come up with, will be printed on a separate sheet of paper clearly marked as not part of your current set of High Seas rules. I've been an avid historical miniatures wargamer since 1978, it is a common practice among wargamers to create local 'house rules', which if agreed upon can be used in a game. I currently have 12-15 sets of published pirate rules, most of which I have created 'house rules' for.
As I've said, I really like playing your High Seas pirate game, especially when I'm using the Playmobil pirate ships and 54mm pirate figures. A pirate in hand is worth two cyber space pirates!