You could hire a officer and then give the ship you wish to test to him, the cheats should be active because of testing. Durring gameplay press F11 and see what happens. It should bring up the ceat debug window, from there you can increase your characters skills, money etc. I alway's hire a officer, then i have it so the shipyard will generate all ships that are in the game and i go down the list. Then i go out a little to see and blast the companions masts to buts (Don't forget to save before you start to demast the ships though). Should the game crash you can reload it and see if it was the ship that caused it as her mast fell.