Can't a protective finish be reapplied?
Yes, it could. The problems are, I'm out almost everyday. As soon as you chew up a few spots, the wood fibers begin absorbing water. They'd have to dry, then be sanded and filled, and sanded again, then refinished.
It's just not practical for the way I use the paddle. Plastic is not subject to absorbing water, even when it's dinged up.
I'm partial to wood, because I've done a lot of woodworking, as a job and a hobby, plus home projects. It has its strengths and weaknesses.
Using it to poke around in rocky water is not one of its strengths.
By the way, do you know that pound for pound wood is stronger than just about any other material, including steel, aluminum and fiberglass. The problem is it has a lot more bulk, pound for pound.
Prior to the development of carbon fiber and kevlar, many racing hulls were made up of thin layers of wood veneers. They were very light, had a lot of inherent stiffness, and very fast.
In fact, many if not all PT Boats were made of wood. Two layers of wood planking literally formed a "plywood" hull.
The design competition and seaworthiness trials for the PT boat was nicknamed "The Plywood Derby" and took place prior to the United States entering the war, in early 1941. The Navy Department held these competition trials around New York Harbor. This was a shakedown to see which company would be contracted to build the Navy PT boats. At the completion of the trials, the Navy was impressed with all three designs, with the Elco 77-footer coming out on top, followed by the Higgins 76-footer and Huckins 72-foot boat. Although Elco came in first, the Navy saw the merits of the other two boats and decided to offer all three companies contracts. Elco received the lion's share of the contract (385 boats by the end of the war), Higgins was second (199 boats by the end of the war) and Huckins with the smallest contract (18 boats by the end of the war, none of which would see combat, being assigned to home defense squadrons in the Panama Canal Zone, Miami, Florida and in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor). Huckins was a tiny yacht-building company in Jacksonville, Florida and was unable to build the number of boats needed by the Navy. Although they built a few 78-foot (24 m) boats of the PT-95 class, the 80-foot (24.4 m) Elco and the 78-foot (24 m) Higgins boats became the standard American motor torpedo boats of World War II. By war's end, more of the 80-foot Elco boats were built than any other type of motor torpedo boat (326 of their 80-foot boats were built). Elco also produced 49 of their 77-foot boats and ten 70-foot boats.
[edit] Elco
The Elco Naval Division boats were the largest in size of the three types of PT boats built for the US Navy used during World War II. The 80-foot (24.4 m) wooden-hulled craft were classified as boats in comparison with much larger steel-hulled destroyers, but were comparable in size to many wooden sailing ships in history. They had a 20 ft 8 in (6.3 m) beam. Though often said to be made of plywood, they were actually made of two diagonal layered 1-inch thick mahogany planks, with a glue-impregnated layer of canvas in between. Holding all this together were thousands of bronze screws and copper rivets. As an example of the strength of this type of construction, the hull of the PT-109 was strong enough that airtight compartments kept the forward hull afloat for hours even after being cut in half by a destroyer. Additionally, damage to the wooden hulls of these boats could be easily repaired at the front lines by base force personnel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_boats
