Correct Use of nowrapRecenter() - r

Question

I'm using R 3.1.2, trying to create a choropleth using a world map. The quirk is that, because my audience is in Asia I need to recenter the map. From the documentation it seems like nowrapRecenter() is perfect for this, but I find that it doesn't seem to work as advertised. For example, start without any recentering:
library(maps)
library(maptools)
library(rgdal)
data(wrld_simpl)
plot(wrld_simpl)
Now try to recenter at 148E longitude, in order to move Asia closer to the centre of the map while splitting as few land masses as possible at the left/right margins:
library(maps)
library(maptools)
library(rgdal)
data(wrld_simpl)
world <- nowrapRecenter(wrld_simpl,offset=148,avoidGEOS=TRUE)
plot(world)
What you get is a bit messy. Not only is the map centred at 180E longitude, but there are scratches all across the map where polygons which nowrapRecenter() should have been divided and re-closed at the left/right are extending across the full width of the map. In fact recentering does not appear to work cleanly for any chosen offset.
A similar question came up before, and the final comment there provided an example using nowrapRecenter(), but it no longer seems to work. What's the best way to recenter a world map (using SpatialPolygons) and have the polygons at the left/right margins be properly divided?
Thanks!

Answer 1

This is only a partial answer, so if it's not adequate let me know and I'll delete it.
The problem appears to be that transforming a Mercator projection fails near the poles. If you are willing to exclude Greenland and Antarctica, this works.
library(maptools)
data(wrld_simpl)
wrld <- wrld_simpl[!(wrld_simpl$NAME %in% c("Greenland","Antarctica")),]
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(wrld,aes(x=long,y=lat,group=group))+
geom_polygon(fill="white",color="grey30")+
coord_map(orientation=c(90,0,148))+
scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(0,60,120,180,-120,-60))+
theme_bw()
Even with this restriction, nowrapRecenter(...) failed.