How versatile are the parts in a lego pirate ship set?

Question

I am looking at buying one of the pirate ship sets, such as 6285-1: Black Seas Barracuda, however, I am concerned the parts in the set are too specialized, and could not be easily adapted to make custom creations. The three main parts are: the pieces of the ship's hull, the masts, and the sails. Are there any uses for these parts outside of making other pirate ships?

Answer 1

(promoting this from comment to answer, since it now has pictures)

In my experience, they're not that useful. I have a mast and rigging from 6270: Forbidden Island, and more rigging from 6261: Raft Raiders. The mast from 6261 is more useful (and has been in 20 sets) because it also has the two finger hinges, which make it a bit more versatile than the two mast pieces of 6270 (first part [8 sets], second part [3 sets]). The mast platform is quite reusable, given its generic shape.

All the pieces apart look like this:

And you can combine the small rigging and mast platform to make a rudimentary TIE Fighter:

Answer 2

ALL parts can be used for something other than the original theme.

Here's an example of a use for the boat hull by Flickr user 2 Much Caffeine:

There's also a rather humorous saying that goes: "All parts are space parts". It's equally applicable to any other theme.