Why not just catapult vs control device?

[shambles]

I've been running S&S for a while now, and the ship-to-ship combat mostly consists of firing catapults at the ship's wheel area of the ship in order to disable it.

Is there any reason that this simple tactic wouldn't work? It bypasses the silly amount of hit points on the other parts of the ship.

[Tomos]

By far, the easiest way to defeat a ship is to outmaneuver it and then ram into it.

When a ram is successful, both ships stop dead in the water, giving your crew an opportunity to climb aboard and slaughter the other crew.

Outmaneuvering an NPC opponent is incredibly easy with a Wisdom-based pilot and plenty of ranks in Profession: Sailor. There are feats that help, but they're not strictly necessary. This is one of the rare situations where Skill Focus is an appropriate feat choice.