[Guest]

Not 100% on this, but isn't it something you can edit in the ships.ini file?
From ships.ini:
// Ship Specs

[Kirov]
Description Kirov Light Cruiser

Icon shipDestroyer

// Model
Mesh 3do/Ships/Kirov/Hier.him

// Motion Parameters
SliderDistance 478.0
Speed 33.336 //66.672
SoundMove models.Ship

// Vitals

[Kirovart0]
BaseChunk Hull1
strengthBasedOnThisSection strength_HullHuge
Vital
damageDepth 0.7
damagePitch -2.0
damageRoll 8.0
damageTime 142.0

[Kirovart1]
BaseChunk Hull2
strengthBasedOnThisSection strength_HullHuge
Vital
damageDepth 0.7
damagePitch 0.0
damageRoll 4.0
damageTime 120.0

[Kirovart2]
BaseChunk Hull3
strengthBasedOnThisSection strength_HullHuge
Vital
damageDepth 0.7
damagePitch 2.0
damageRoll 8.0
damageTime 146.0

I could be mistaken, but don't the highlighted values affect the ships sink time?
Will be watching this thread, myself... :?