Materials properties charts are proposed to compare available materials for small fishing craft artisanal boatbuilding. Mechanical flexural performance parameters were selected for the boats’ seakeeping and service life. Price, CO2 footprint, and embodied energy were the parameters used for economic and environmental sustainability evaluation. Combined parameters showed a competitive performance for wood. Results indicate that adopting laminate composite construction as a substitute for wood in the fishing craft fleet can be less sustainable from both economical and environmental perspectives. Efforts could be more effective if directed to increase existing artisanal boatyards’ sustainability through enhancing wood durability, optimizing its scantlings, adopting alternative native wood, reforested wood or wood cored sandwich composites.
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