Thank you all for your input!
Certainly Sails of Glory is designed in a way that makes some room for introducing modifications. It's nice to introduce house rules that tweak the game towards what feels like a better representation of historical actions of the period. That the game is reasonably fast is one of the main attractions for me. 24 hr games or more were something I had time for long in the past. 1-2 hrs feels about right now though sometimes more is possible. Quick and easy house rules are generally what I'm looking for!
TexaS>> I certainly appreciate your point about the Victory knocking a ship out in its first pass with double-shot.
I guess keeping the C/D range damage as is, but maybe not allowing or reducing the B range damage for double-shot makes sense. I like the Ax2 idea... Doubling the burden is also good - and tracking side specific damage on the hull track is actually not hard - I hadn't thought of that simple alternative to using Dobbs' side-specific damage charts.
Now I have plenty of ideas to try out... better get sailing...