I have deduced that it is 1814 in game this year (in 2022). The reason for my thinking this is a long wall of text, but it is essentially two-fold.

TL;DR Version
Events in history correspond to this time very well, from 1801 to 1822.
Overlapping years correspond to 2009 - 2030 Current Era.

>Insert Sympathy Here<

1. The days of the year line up perfectly. In fact, since since 1801 the Gregorian calendar has been synchronized, starting with the year 2009 and going forward. While this may seem arbitrary, let me finish my point by saying that there are ships, important and/or famous real ships that existed well into the 1800's. Some weren't even ordered until the late 1790's, take the HMS Indefatigable for instance.

Without getting too deep into history at this point, I wish to break from my explanation for a second by saying that this is mostly for RP, being that I actually enjoy playing (on War as well) with a sense of reality to keep the boredom away. ;)

With that I will provide a link: https://www.navalaction.com/#ageofsail
Saying "18th Century" probably isn't much surprise, as I'm sure many of you know, they advertise this on their own website.

And quoted by yours truly, "Breathtaking open world based on 18th century historical maps gives you an opportunity to explore the 18th Century Caribbean. More than 365 historical ports based on their real locations are scattered across the map." While researching, I found that there are actually two periods in history that correspond to this extremely eventful century, aka the "short" 18th century and the "long" 18th century.

Normally this would mean 1701-1800. However, I digress.

Okay, on to second point.

2. Dates and events make sense, regardless of current year we live in.

First of all,
1800 was also an "Exceptional Common Year"... but that's pretty complicated. It has something to do with leap years, non leap years, and a fair amount of <bleeps>.

Now, let me explain two competing ideas for viewing history during the time(s) in-game.

A "Short" Century: 1715-1789, corresponding to important events in French history, the death of King Louis XIV and the beginning of the French Revolution.

A "Long" Century: Ending in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo, which is certainly not a so far along in history that the game should end at any time soon.

Second of all,
This was an enormous century for global war, politics, trade and so on. The American War of Independence, the Industrial Revolution, the Reign of Terror in France, the final partition of Poland-Lithuania... it is a long list, but I will stop here. Basically, if we look up each ship which is in the game, you'll find that quite a few were still sailing post-1801, and the first iron steamship to go to sea wasn't even until 1822, which crossed the English channel at approximately 8 knots...

Now, for my final thought. If this game is still around to play in 7+ years, will there ever be another game like it?