In the Closed Beta, ships I sent to the New World would travel to the eastern side of the map, which happened to be the closest edge from my starting island. This made trips to the New world reasonably quick.

In the Open beta my ships travel to the southern edge of the map, while my island was at the northern side. This made the trips take a huge amount of time, especially when the ships have to sail against the wind.

I don't know if there is any way to know which direction the ships will sail to from the start. If there is, islands near that edge are are way more valuable then other islands. I don't like how this is implemented. It would probably be better if ships always sail to the closest map edge. This way island location doesn't make such a huge difference in travel times.

Extending that idea, ships should appear in the New world at the closest edge to your (main?/first?) island in the New World. (And perhaps an option to select which island the ship is to head to, would be even better, but this is less important.)