Great job Rubini! I was always hoping for this one.
One suggestion... since you said you could add many different variants of lifeboats and control when they are activated, wouldn't it be cool to extend this mod into a CDPWSS (a.k.a Complete Destruction Package When a Ship Sinks)...?
So in addition to lifeboats, you could also add couple dozen floating debris parts (wooden crates, maybe some floating cargo, some wood from the deck, etc.) + some swimming sailors, and maybe 1 floating life ring per ship? I think this would be a major step in immersion for this game especially if they do not disappear after couple minutes like the default wooden crates.
Just an idea.