New England and points south have a strong tradition of building beautiful wood boats. On the other hand, I was influenced both by my acquaintance with small aircraft and by the boats on my own coast. The smaller pleasure craft are fiberglass. Almost all of the commercial fishing fleet and some of the racing sailboats are now made of aluminum, which is more durable. Either 5051 alloy, or, where more structural strength is required, the more expensive 6061 T6 is used.
Maintenance is low.
Most of these boats do not even require painting. On our anodized frames, the only trick is to put some light grease in the joints before assembly if you are going to leave the boat assembled for a long time. This prevents salt build up. Super Lube, a good teflon lubricant which doesn t wash off, has recently become available at many bicycle shops. When we first started production, we were forced to buy small quantities of tubing from a local supplier.