Now that my players are on their way to Rickety Squibs I need to start preparing for more sandboxy sailing exploits. I know the setting stresses the importance of the deal between the Shackles and Sargava, with the pirate lords getting a big payment to allow the nation's ships through. Do they simply avoid those w/ Sargavan flags? It seems that every merchant would fly them then. Is there a constantly updating log of approved ships? Maybe some magic solution that I'm not thinking of? I'm considering having a ship from Sargava be a possible encounter, making them choose whether to loot it or follow the 'rules' of the Shackles.
Anybody run into this issue before? Any good miscellaneous advice for this part of the AP? I'm considering cutting out ship combat rules and the weird rules for infamy in favor of a more narrative glossing over of sea chases.. did your players enjoy those aspects of the campaign?
In "Raiders of the Fever Sea", there is a scenario where a Shackles pirate attacks a Sargavan ship and the PCs can intervene to help it or loot it themselves. I would say that the ban on attacking Sargavan ships is mainly only on paper and plenty of pirates ignore it if they think they can get away with it. It's likely Shackles pirates don't loot in Sargavan waters more than Sargavan ships are safe in Shackles waters.
If you're concerning yourself with how this all works out economically, you're wasting your time because Golarion isn't normally that well thought out on "real world" issues and the minutia of economic trade. If you don't bring it up as GM, it will probably never come up in-game.
In my campaign, the chase rules are just awkward and none of the players care to learn them, so at first it was just me rolling and telling them the results of the roles.
Now I just narrate the chase, have them make some Sailing roles to see who has the Upper Hand, place the boats and let them navigate from there once the ships are in cannon distance.
(My players opted for the High Octane version of Pirates, so there are lots of cannons.)