From what I know of naval battles of this time the two sides would line there ships up and sail past each other shooting there guns. There was the tactic of braking the line which Nelson employed at Trafalgar I believe it works by cutting the line isolating some ships down wind of the others allowing the attacker not to fight the whole enemy fleet at once. It also lets the attacking ships fire into the bow and stern of enemy ships as it passes though the line. The downside is your lead ship or ships has to endure the fire-power of the enemy fleet as you close in with only your bow guns shooting back.
You can try this in the demo if you just leave your Royal Navy fleet alone and let it sale on at the French and it dose work well you just have to react right after you pass the French fleet. It is quite nice to see the 100 gun flagship fireing at close range into the two smaller French ships on each side.
The Royal Navy web sight dose have some info on battles in the age of sail
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3926
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