I suggest for every ship repair attempt to restore at least 1 hull point (even on a failed check).
Reasoning:
ATM. ship repairs use a carpentry/tailoring DC35 check to restore 5 hull points - the attempt takes 35 seconds and consumes resources by default and is progressively reduced with ranks in the trade.
- means ship PvE greatly depends on the ability to make ship repairs as hull damage reduces ship speed, which often results in the return voyage taking an unreasonable amount of time unless a dedicated carpenter/tailor is not present
- can play out the same way as running out of healing kits in the middle of the dungeon without any means to rest or teleport out
- manifests IG by even fully decked ships not wandering very far from docks unless a dedicated carpenter/tailor is present
- this would hardly break anything as repairing a Tempest or Leviathan at 10% hull integrity with 0 skill would still take 147 RL minutes at the cost of a very inefficient use of materials, but at least some progress would be achieved as opposed to fishing for nat 20s ineffectually every 35 seconds
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Edit: The issue is further exacerbated on the Ironhelm and Dreadnaught, because they require sailing smiths, a much rarer combo of skillsets, along with their needs for entirely different repair materials.