It seems the prevailing school of thought on this forum is that wooden boats are I’ll advised as they all rot, costs so much money to maintain and repair, and the final nail in the coffin is they are uninsurable. If these conditions were true I’d have been washed out of the marine surveying business many many years ago. And of course all my boatyard associates and custom builders from coast to coast would have vanished or more likely never sprouted into the wooden boat world. Back in the 80’s a friend published book listing about 150 wooden boat builders coast to coast. In talking with him years later we both agreed that he missed lots and lots of builders in Maine and Nova Scotia, the Chesapeake, panhandle region of Florida and especially the South coast. Perhaps another 50 to 75 builders that weren’t found or logged. Bottom line is that is a lot of full time wooden boat builders and I’m certain we can all agree they are building for buyers, no ?
When my office was in Marblehead I could leave in the morning for NH and Maine and drive from one wood boat shop to the next up to about North End Shipyard in Rockland. There are lots more further Downeast but it was time to go home. Next day there was the North Shore of MA from Manchester to Glouchester to Newburyport and probably a dozen boat shops and builders. If I drove South to the south Shore and Cape Cod and Rhode Island there were dozens of shops had crews to repair and maintain fine wooden yachts. Same in CT, NY, VT, NJ, VA, NC, SC all the way to the Keys. There are plenty on the South coast and a decent population from the Bay area to Seattle where the skills and crews have never left.
To those with limited or no experience they rest their opinions of wooden boats on scuttlebutt, or dock-talk usually offered up by a self proclaimed expert who preaches wood hulls are a defective concept and therefore nothing more than rot bombs with the fuse that’s lit once the hull splashes. Unfortunately the proof or examples of such thinking are almost always fifty to sixty year old production twin screw cabin cruisers or larger motor yachts that were built to economy scantlings, of less than optimal materials and for the forty years have been floating apartments. What I’ve just related is a dismal picture but often sad cause somebody often calls these vessels home and due to age, health and no retirement funds have no other option.
But the truth is that excellent wooden boats, those built to standards and lasting scantlings do indeed survive and have been sailing decades longer than any fiberglass boat. When a good builder has sound drawings, good timber and I mean species with some rot resistance, proper plank and frame construction with good fasteners, strong decks with drainage and interior layout with good ventilation a vessel of this type can certainly last fifty plus years with most maintenance being related to coatings, machinery and systems. But step it up and buy a wooden boat built by one of many exceptional builders and with today’s adhesives, preservatives and coatings I’d venture to say seventy years or more . Compared to glass reinforced plastic, wood really is a superior building material. It’s much lighter so strength to weight ratio will outperform almost all conventionally built fiberglass hulls the exceptions being carbon and Kevlar epoxy lay ups and heavily cored sandwich construction. I’ve not mention cold molding wood hulls with select wood veneers or laminars in epoxy. Much much lighter and stronger.
So with hundreds of wooden boat builders or shipwrights and carpenters there is obviously has to be some work for them. And nice wooden boats are not cheap so am I to believe some posters here they can’t be insured or financed ? I find that incredulous don’t you ? As a surveyor I can attest to the fact that there are lots of insurance underwriters who will insure good wood boats and banks who finance them. Of course a lot of this depends on the pedigree of the institutions and companies your doing business with. Right now most of the big blanket low cost insurance companies can’t even pay or find in-house help that knows a ketch from a ferry boat let alone somebody who can decipher a real wooden boat survey.
So you’ve got a fiberglass Taiwanese trawler and not to worry — life is good no wood ?
Rick
When my office was in Marblehead I could leave in the morning for NH and Maine and drive from one wood boat shop to the next up to about North End Shipyard in Rockland. There are lots more further Downeast but it was time to go home. Next day there was the North Shore of MA from Manchester to Glouchester to Newburyport and probably a dozen boat shops and builders. If I drove South to the south Shore and Cape Cod and Rhode Island there were dozens of shops had crews to repair and maintain fine wooden yachts. Same in CT, NY, VT, NJ, VA, NC, SC all the way to the Keys. There are plenty on the South coast and a decent population from the Bay area to Seattle where the skills and crews have never left.
To those with limited or no experience they rest their opinions of wooden boats on scuttlebutt, or dock-talk usually offered up by a self proclaimed expert who preaches wood hulls are a defective concept and therefore nothing more than rot bombs with the fuse that’s lit once the hull splashes. Unfortunately the proof or examples of such thinking are almost always fifty to sixty year old production twin screw cabin cruisers or larger motor yachts that were built to economy scantlings, of less than optimal materials and for the forty years have been floating apartments. What I’ve just related is a dismal picture but often sad cause somebody often calls these vessels home and due to age, health and no retirement funds have no other option.
But the truth is that excellent wooden boats, those built to standards and lasting scantlings do indeed survive and have been sailing decades longer than any fiberglass boat. When a good builder has sound drawings, good timber and I mean species with some rot resistance, proper plank and frame construction with good fasteners, strong decks with drainage and interior layout with good ventilation a vessel of this type can certainly last fifty plus years with most maintenance being related to coatings, machinery and systems. But step it up and buy a wooden boat built by one of many exceptional builders and with today’s adhesives, preservatives and coatings I’d venture to say seventy years or more . Compared to glass reinforced plastic, wood really is a superior building material. It’s much lighter so strength to weight ratio will outperform almost all conventionally built fiberglass hulls the exceptions being carbon and Kevlar epoxy lay ups and heavily cored sandwich construction. I’ve not mention cold molding wood hulls with select wood veneers or laminars in epoxy. Much much lighter and stronger.
So with hundreds of wooden boat builders or shipwrights and carpenters there is obviously has to be some work for them. And nice wooden boats are not cheap so am I to believe some posters here they can’t be insured or financed ? I find that incredulous don’t you ? As a surveyor I can attest to the fact that there are lots of insurance underwriters who will insure good wood boats and banks who finance them. Of course a lot of this depends on the pedigree of the institutions and companies your doing business with. Right now most of the big blanket low cost insurance companies can’t even pay or find in-house help that knows a ketch from a ferry boat let alone somebody who can decipher a real wooden boat survey.
So you’ve got a fiberglass Taiwanese trawler and not to worry — life is good no wood ?
Rick
