Damn, I did wonder why I was having so much trouble with some destroyers - thanks everyone
I am a long-time SH2 player and moving up to SH3 was a bit of an eye opener anyway with the changed commands system - I really missed the old [=5 degrees port rudder, ]=5 degrees starboard rudder way of steering the boat...guess now I have a reason to start using the alternative view of the rudder controls rather than the compass
PS: Can you tell I prefer keyboard commands over using the mouse?