Happened to me and to my friend on seperate occasions.

During battle, when an enemy ship that you are fighting gets very close and orbits you, you randomly lose target lock on the enemy.

This is usually dire.

Quite dire, I suspect it is my first officer, P'tak, trying to win a bet. At least I can find the tab key a lot quicker as double clicking to retarget sometimes just doesn't get the job done.

did you change your enegry distribution settings when you lost the lock?

I rarely change my energy settings in combat unless I am getting hosed.

I've have this same problem sometimes and it persists long after banned hashish on my bridge...