I thought it might be a nice idea in later versions of Ship Sim if you could send out an SOS call if your vessel is in distress.
When you send out this call a tug boat would head towards your vessel and then hook up a line, once the line is hooked up you would then be in control of the tug, you would then go to a dry dock and repair your original vessel. The tug would head off into the distance or moore near-by, the user would no longer control the tug and once your boat was repaired (sped up repair time) you would then be back on your way.
Maybe with the money you make from doing missions you could have to pay for the assistance from port, but that's getting down the economic side of things....
Anyway tell me what you think...