I agree with you 100%. Wood is hard to beat. But I still think that keeping an open mind and thinking out of the box is healthy and maybe these new materials can be incorporated into these boats in a beneficial way. At one time fibre glass was a new material that needed somebody to figure out how to utilize it.

: When you consider swapping materials you have to do it on a more
: comprehensive basis than just a single characteristic. Every material we
: use has a list of physical characteristics and there are ususally for or
: five that are important to a particular application.
: Besides weight there is tensile strength, compressive strength, modulus of
: elasticity (flexability),and a lot more. Plus you have to consider ability
: to be glued, screwed, sawed, sanded, lashed etc. Well chosen species of
: wood give you the most bang for your buck. There is nothing on the horizon
: that may surpass it at the moment.