Cross the T, I say, cross the T. You will get the first shot broadside, and he who fires second, meets Davy Jones first. I also have found that after crossing the T double back the way you came to the outside from the enemy. Sometimes you can cross his T twice early in the battle. Also, some of those big ships that manage to cut through your line will now be isolated taking broadsides both fore and aft, or port and starboard, and this helps to force routing ships to surrender before they rout so far as to escape. If you have suffieciently superior firepower, go for the sails first, this will immobilize many ships. If you are equal or inferior in firepower you may want to go for hull damage first to knock out some of his guns. But some may prefer to go for crippling mobility even if he has the advantage in firepower. Each time you sufficiently cripple a ship's rigging, that's that many guns he will find difficult to bring to bear, and make him unable to keep bow and stern pointed away from you.