Don't really have a lot to add to the above but my own experience. I did shipwright work on wood boats in the NW for nearly 30 years. I apprenticed at Fishing Vessel Owners at Fishermans Terminal in Seattle in the mid 70's, then migrated north to LaConner and worked here and in Anacortes for some 16 years more before the work just got so sporadic, I eventually found other ways to fill my time. I was sick of it anyway. But to the OP question. Wood is great, but it has its issues. Yes, wood does rot in salt water but just rots faster in fresh. We used to say fresh water kills wood boats. Rain! My last wood boat was a 1948 Monk bridgedeck cruiser of about 33' with a gas engine. Hull stayed pretty good, but the Port Orford cedar house sides went south in the rainy weather. It really deserved to be under cover but the costs kept me out in the rain. You pay on one end or the other. A wood boat really should be under cover, hell, a lot of glass boats should be under cover, mine is! As mentioned above while salt is generally better for wood than fresh, the reverse is true of underwater metals, salt eats them up. Monel is nice stuff but rarely encountered at least in this NOTW. Galvy fastenings are fine as long as they are buried well, bronze is likely the best but SS is good also. If one has no idea how to go about replacing a plank, get a shipwright to do it or at least show you how it is done. Its not that big a deal but its easy to screw up, I have replaced hundreds by now I suppose on all sizes of boats and small ships. I once replaced a garboard on a huge ex govt boat in Seattle. It was 6" thick on its butt end, over 20' long and over 3" thick on the hood end against the forefoot. Steamed all day and put it on in the afternoon with big jacks, wedges and top mauls driving huge galvy I/2" square ship spikes of varying lengths. They flew a couple of us to Ketchikan once from Seattle to replace a section of keel on a Miki Tug that had grounded. For those who don't know what a Miki is, its an ex Army WWII wood tug of about 125' length. The section of keel was about 30' if I recall. We were there a week on that job. Its a specialized trade, and not something that a house framer will just naturally know much about. It helps to have shipwright friends if you own a wood boat! Didn't mean to drone on so much.
