Here's a suggestion - not 100% thought out but you'll get the idea and if you like it, can tweak to suit:
I think it would help to consolidate EVERYTHING into one tool - probably the Seaport Manager since that's a tool we can put in the bottom toolbox for easy access/visibility. Then we'd have tabbed screens on that one tool - one for Ship's Containers, one for Ship's Logbook, one for neighbors ships that are in your port.
The Ship's Containers and Ship's Logbook tabs would have an extra step in them because you'd have to click a picture of the ship first (yellow, pink, blue, whatever). Once you did that, it would open to what we have now. That way, we can access all ships we have launched from one place and we can work everything pertaining to ships from our toolbox without having to navigate to the farm where each ship is unless we want to. We can still do it the way it is now (i.e., go to the farm) and work each ship separately - no need to change what we have now - this is an added feature that would help, I think, for those of us who are hoping to have all 7 ships launched at all times AND be able to provide quick turn-around to neighboring ships that land at our ports.
So my current wish list is:
1. Change in the way the neighbors are chosen to decrease the likelihood of us all killing one another
2. This new, consolidated tool
3. A better way to notify neighbors when a ship is in their port. Maybe an onscreen thing - or maybe we could even have an opt-in email notification for those of us who'd like that? In other words, a thing that says, "Would you like the Mayor to send you an email letting you know when you have a neighbor's ship in your port?" I know a lot of people would NOT like that - ergo the need for opt-in - but some of us might like it. Thing is - if you create the opt-in, you'll also need an opt-out if people decide they don't want to be bothered. I haven't had any ships in my port yet so once I see the current functionality, I may feel like that's enough. Although I do sort of like the email thing.