cdnred: I have actually lost two boarding parties (separate occassions) in the same run due to the artillery cannon. That was a tough go, some how managed to win that one in spite of myself (losing two BPs were not my only errors) and the poor weapon availability.
I've also lost boarding parties to ships FTLing out while they were still on board. Let's just say I've not yet mastered boarding exercises.
I have only played the Federation Cruiser once so have not yet blown up my boarding party.
I have had my entire crew boarding the other ship and got the Trusty AI Achievement. The second time the ship went FTL and left my empty ship behind.
EDIT: I just blew up my boarding crew.
Now if this had a save and reload feature, then, well, I can just reload and continue where I left off.