My friend and I have noticed that when a passenger is on the boat when the boat is boarded, often one of two things happen:

1) The passenger will be shut out of participating in the first round, although they can be attacked,

2) The passenger is unable to join the fight at all, no matter what he is she does.

I'm glad to hear you are fixing the problem of passengers not entering battle when the ship they are on is boarded. I spent a very fustrating time this week riding on a friend's ship. When his ship was boarded, I was left out of the fight. When I ran at the attacking forces, a few times it let me join the fight, but more often, it just left me running around through the fight, unable to join it. I had to port to my friend in order to join the fight, entering it late every time, without crew and near the enemy, even though I was there from the start. After those fights, rather than placing me back on his ship, I was sailing through space beside his ship, even if another battle began. I had to port to him to reboard his ship. We were near Puerto Mico, fighting Marleybone ships.