I've (along with several others) been having issues with ship creation. After creating a ship, selecting save did nothing for me.
See several entries in Brad's in-game issues thread for details with hardware,etc.
I've been playing with this for the last several hours, and have concluded that the following two things seem to make it work for me... Since I've seen others with this problem (and it was a game ruining issue for me) I wanted to share.
I now NEVER go to the shipyard from the build ship screen (from the news display or the planet screen). Instead always close everything down to the "Main Screen" and then use the interface panel button (right most button at the bottom of the screen).
Also I've found it helps to hit ENTER when changing the name of the ship (this was usually the last thing I did, and I would type the name and hit save). Now I type the name, hit enter so the cursor goes away, THEN click save.
No guarantees this will work for you, but it's gotten me back into playing the game instead of crashing everytime I try to make a colony ship with 8 speed.
