[Scorpious2k]

My approach, which I had working on our server before the boats changed, was simple. I made two kinds of ships... shuttles and cruisers.

From the player's point of view:

You get on the ship ( a shuttle ) , it takes you out into the ocean for a while, stops and waits. A second ship ( cruiser ) comes by and pulls along side. You get on and it takes you around. Eventually, it stops and another ship (shuttle) pulls along side and takes you to the dock.

In effect, shuttles moved to to/from docks and cruisers move you over the large bodies of water.

How it works:

You have ships that move and ships that are always in a known, static position.

You get on a moving ship and ride it until it zones you. You zone onto one of the static ships (so the zone point is static). The effect is that the ship you were on has stopped. The new zone's moving ship pulls along side and moves you around the zone. When you zone again, you end up on a static ship again, waiting for the moving one to pull along side.

Like I said, simple. Its all in the presentation to make the illusion work.