Wood vs Fiberglass

[Compass790]

Extremely hard to sell a wood boat in NZ now. I personally love looking at them but they are much more work on average. You are constantly fighting rot.
You can get very strong ones made with double or triple skins of wood epoxied together that arent too bad.
You can get a wood boat of the same length much cheaper. I wonder why?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by David M

It's analogous to buying a car with 100 miles on it versus 200,000 miles. The 200,000 mile car is going to be much cheaper but the maintenace expenses are going to be more frequent and more expensive.

Only you can decide if reliability or cost is going to be more important.

For something that keeps you alive and your loved ones alive, I would pick reliable.

More like a steam powered car vs a modern fuel injected gas engine.

Other than the cool factor, nothing comes out ahead for a wood boat...hence you can buy them dirt cheap.

I encourage you to buy and maintain one to keep these historical objects around because they are beautiful but if you want a convenient boat to do a quick 2yr cruise and then sell, it's a bad idea.

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by Open-d

My question is more to do with structural integrity and ability to handle heavy seas without disintegration. In other words, are wooden trawlers, in good condition, as structurally-seaworth as a similar boat in fiberglass?

We have thousands of years experience with wooden boats, tens of years with fiberglass. Why should a wooden boat not be able to handle heavy seas?

[nauticalnomad]

I have a cold molded timber yacht.. The maintenance isnt that bad.. Id never own any other wooden boat though. I have seen planks spring and the work needed to float them. Especially when you get to sailing grounds where marinas dont understand timber boats need to float in water to take up.

[rsn48]

We have thousands of years experience with wooden boats, tens of years with fiberglass. Why should a wooden boat not be able to handle heavy seas?

Wooden boats can handle high seas, don't think that's an issue for boats designed to be on the high sea, whether wood or fiberglass. Many fiberglass boats are considered safe for high seas operation when in reality they are not. One factor for example is windows: how big, how thick, how structurally sound in difficult water?