There are a lot of misconceptions about wooden boats these days. Some people seem to remember having old wooden boats that leaked and required lots of TLC. Well, modern strip planking has taken care of those problems!

You can expect your wood boat to be pretty trouble-free. When we get back from a trip to the water, we usually just wash down the boat lightly with some dish detergent, especially if we've been in some dirty water. It's just like washing the car.

Longer term, you will probably want to repaint the outside of the hull after many years. And you should probably revarnish the deck every few years also. (We use a quality spar urethane varnish on all exposed wood surfaces). The timing of these things depend, of course, on whether you keep your boat in the water and in the sun all season, or whether you trailer it and keep it under cover most of the time.