Played it, and it is so very definitely a Euro. It does fall in the category of Euro-y adventure games, and does have pirate theme going for it. It isn't as good as M&M, but has some things going for it.
Bits: Oh dear lord are the bits terrible. Thin, hard to punch, lame art, the hostages dont' quite correctly and the thin card treasure chests are flimsy and a pain to assemble.
Game: The elements of M&M are present. You fill the board with merchant ships, then sail out to claim them (3 sailing turns per round, with claimed merchant ships unavailable for other players.), then you sail back to port, getting hit by the Navy on your way back in. Whatever treasure you have left is used to buy upgrades for your ship so you can do better.
The details are actually pretty cute. The sailing mechanism involves rolling 3 D6s. You can basically add or subtract a die from the current nubmered space, use any die to sail to a band, and/or use a +-1 token to alter your die. It actually kind of combines movement and search phases from M&M into something that still works relatively well, and allows for just a bit of preplanning.
Combine this with a predictable combat system. Add your ship stats one card played from your hand of 4. Compare stats, no dice rolls. You will get those cards back at the end of a round, but you also need to keep a decent card to deal with the Navy at the end of the turn.
So far, the game only has a bit of speed on M&M, but lacks the quest and event charm of that game. The UPGRADE system is the winner here. There are perhaps 20-30 different upgrades. Most are stat tweaks, but there are some discounts on later purchases, crew that help in specific circumstances, and generally more interesting stuff.
Interaction: passable for a Euro. It is just taking upgrades and ships ahead of the others. No direct conflict.
Overall: Very Euro, but a cure one that is played more as a adventure/questy game kind of pace. You can plan a bit, but enough stuff crops up randomly each turn that you can't agonize over it. (I'm sure that there ARE people who could agonize over it, but I'm starting to think that the Snow Tails "Pause" token should be replaced with the clubs from Arrrgh-i-tect.)