I know that the Player's Guide warns them against this, but should I discourage this by having storms come up and having them fight in a storm or something along those lines? I guess mainly I want to know if there are rules that I should be looking at to govern them wearing the heavier armors?
Heavy Armor (or any armor above leather) just has the armor check penalty, applies to swim, climb, etc.
And as Bad Sintax mentioned, having a PC get bull rushed overboard (maybe a NPC as an example) is a good demonstration of why it's dangerous. Then again if the PCs have really good swim checks...more power to them.
The easiest swim check is DC 10, with chain mail you are looking at DC 15 (really it is -5 to the roll but same thing). Pretty tough for a low level character.
Well, bear in mind that they quickly get stripped of their gear, armor included, right off the hop. While they're enduring their grueling days as sailors, hint that at least they were not forced to do the same work while armored.
Should they successfully manage to get it back from Cut-Throat Grok and they insist on wearing it while working the day, give them some endurance tests against fatigue. That armor-check penalty applies to climbing, too. Rigging not dangerous enough? Go ahead, wear that armor. Guess what? Gravity is not your friend.
You don't have to forcibly punish them. The armor *will* come in handy at times. Just let them live the consequences of their environment and hard labour.
Good luck. Have fun.
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Pirates are famous for nick names. Remind the PCs that they do not always get to pick the nick names their crew or other NPC's give them. Refering to them as Anchor, Deadweight, Coffinclad, Bottom-walker, Turtle, ect over and over again might help point the issue out.