Unfortunately drivers aren't causing my problem, at the time I wrote the thread I was using the 11.12s and since then I have updated to 12.1 and then to the 12.1a preview driver and the problem hasn't changed.
I have noticed that I can enter Scapa from the North west approach without crashing. However once in Scapa I found NO CAPITAL SHIPS! Plenty of DDs and a good handful of merchants but after a full night (game time) of scouring every inch of the harbour I did not find one single capitol ship
Frankly I am at a loss of words I have the real version of SH5 not some pirated copy, I am using a tried and proven mod setup (based of Travelly's setup), I have a pretty powerful rig with a relatively fresh win 7 x64 install and all drivers up to date and still I experience so many bugs, CTDs and other odd behavior. I must admit I find the game awesome as far as the gfx and fx are concerned but more often then not when playing it seems to be more like me vs the game rather than me vs the games AI and objectives if you understand what I mean