I been on ships and boats most of my life. I live on a large wood boat now. I think it's better to live your dream than spend your life wishing you did. Wood boats take more
maintenance, but if you use good materials and practices, you can get a wood boat to the point where it's not much more work than a
steel boat. You get more boat for the
money than with
steel of
fiberglass. Sometimes it is easier to make major changes in wood. But it's more work to bring back a poorly maintained wood boat than some other material. Most people will tell you boats
rot from the top down. That's because fresh
water seeping thru decks causes dryrot. And
salt and
salt water (w/o
marine organisms) is a preservative. Especially in old commercial wood boats you often find
salt boxes all along the insides, right under the
deck. Moisture condensing under a curved
deck runs into these boxes and then over time runs down the inside planking and into the
bilge, preserving the wood. I have seen oak so hard from age and salt, in a remodel, I had to trim it with a steel cutting blade. If you have salt boxes, keep them filled. I also keep salt in the bilges. Where I live we have some large wood commercial fishing boats and tenders that are over 100 years old still working daily.
In all big wood boats I make a low volume venting system that draws air down the inside planking into the
bilge and then out, now thru a
solar powered vent. No mildew or
mold smell when you walk into the boat. My
insulation leaves a space the width of the ribs so this air flow is possible.
As for conversion to sail, most slow speed boats trace their
history to a sailing design. Before I spent a lot of money I would check with a professional. There are a lot of home made sail/hull setups that don't sail. Also, fix the
hull, decks and outside
cabin first. Over the years I've seen many boats scrapped because the owners spent their time decorating while the
hull rotted.
Lepke