I've been discovering more and more in these port battles that the old method of tactics, splitting the fleets and attempting to out maneuver the other side just don't matter with the new repair meta. Even fireships aren't as devastating as they used to be. It seems that all you need to do is stay together, focus a couple ships down and momentum will sink their ships faster then they sink yours.
The US spawned right off to our left with not enough players to quickly make an impact on any of our ships and then immediately send 2 fireships at us that had minimal effect, thus weakening their numbers and splitting up the fleet. They also seemed to want to chase a couple of our guys with 3/4 to 1 mismatches that allowed us to focus even more of their ships down. If the Mortar Brig didn't rack up 600 points, this could easily of been an entire fleet sunk.....worse than Cartagena.
I was thinking about ways to counter the pirate "fur ball" style with the new repair meta and there really isn't one. Playing the old game of chain, kite and focus off lone ships doesn't work if you have unlimited repairs every 10mins. The other side just needs to perfect the "fur ball" and be better at it.
I'm not sure I like the new style of port battles or not. I enjoyed the thought and planning it that went into the fights beforehand, but smashing into the other fleet and sinking all of them is rather satisfying.