The British SOL's can take a beating and did, crew loss was heavy due to critical hits but none were sunk or crippled.
The Brits also suffered a crippled Frigates and another that lost all crew but was still adrift:
Finally the French fleet broke with half of their vessels out of action, the remaining vessels had to pass command checks to carry the fight. Two of them decided that discretion was the better part of valor while the last Frigate was stubborn and was ready to bear.
So a good Brit victory but with high cost. The game took longer than we expected for this small to mid-sized game but it was our first go with the rules and we were a bit clumsy. Definitely worth while playing though!
My friend, who played British, thought the critical hits came to easy (a roll to hit of 6 that is not saved against is a critical) but I feel that is offset by the ability to save against them. We thought an alternate rule could similar to BFG where once damage is actually scored, then a roll of 6 results in a critical.
We both felt the template for determining bow and stern rakes was too liberal though. Instead of 90 degree arcs for such hits, we felt they should maybe be reduced to 45 degrees.