Blood flows. Urges strike. Yearnings awaken. And sometimes, well, we give in. We break down. We buy boats.

If you have recently done this, take comfort in what you are about to learn. There are people out there who, pray for their souls, buy wood boats.

(Please. A moment of silence).

But wait! Some people think buying a wooden boat isn't enough fun! And so they purchase plans, say goodbye to their sanity and build their own wooden boats. It is true, what you have just read. And now here is the part you will not believe: They love it. They love the process of building wooden boats, they love the feel and smell of wood, they even love the sound a wooden boat makes. They say wood talks to them. Fiberglass talks too, but it's a shrill voice. They don't listen.

"To me a wooden boat is a real boat," said Ronald Hearon of Dias Creek, who has built rowboats and kayaks and even a 22-foot sailboat, the Jennifer Lee, named after his daughter. (He figures he has about 3,000 hours in the boat and many more in the daughter).

"They're individual," said Hearon. "Hand-built. Pieces of art - sculptures in wood. I take a lot of pleasure in building them and a lot of pleasure in using them."

Want to make a wood boat owner/builder smile? Do what everybody does. Walk up to one, admire his boat, tell him how beautiful it is and then say, "Must be a lot of work, huh?"

He'll probably tell you something that could be called boating heresy: Maintaining a wood boat is no more time-consuming than maintaining a fiberglass boat. Yes, there is painting and sanding. But 'glass must be waxed and cared for. Add up the hours and they're very close, they say. And there are other advantages to wood: easier construction for the home builder, lighter weight, superior strength, easier repairs.

"You just can't buy a glass boat and walk away from it," said Will Hutton, a retired engineer and graduate of a two-year boat building school in Maine. Hutton has a shop on North Main Street in Cape May Court House. He mostly restores wood boats. He knows materials, and he knows b.s. when he sees it. Is there more maintenance with wood?

"I'd say no," he said. "It's a different kind of maintenance. With glass it's a constant waxing. Otherwise they deteriorate. With a wooden boat there is maintenance of course, but it's different. It's the same amount of time. If you want your boat to look nice you have to pay attention to it. It's the same thing with your house or your car. Wood isn't really that hard to take care of. Wood boats got a bad rap."

Some wood boat builders have borrowed modern materials and methods. Lathering a wood hull with epoxy, for example, makes it maintenance-friendly. But some traditionalists would rather build boats using the old methods. Why take a tree apart, they'll ask, and then glue it back together? Either way, wood boats are making a comeback, through restoration or new construction. This is more evident in New England and, say, North Carolina, but it's happening in New Jersey, too.

But fiberglass continues to dominate. Why?

"Because the customer is stupid," Hutton said. "Customers believe the bull--- that they are maintenance-free."

Hutton wonders how many glass boats will make it to age 100. It's not uncommon for a wood boat to be that old.

"It's like plastic furniture vs. antique furniture," he said. "You don't restore plastic furniture, you just throw it away."

To Hutton's engineering mind, fiberglass has no advantages. Period. But it's not just a question of engineering. Wood provokes emotions that fiberglass can't. Wood has to be touched. In turn it touches people in ways that modern materials can't.

"I don't dislike fiberglass boats," said Gary Clements, a Cape May Court House contractor. "They have their place in the world. But I would find it hard to own one. When you go to a marina today and look around, they're all the same. They look like clones. But years ago, boats had character. They were a reflection of the men who built them."

Clements built a 15-foot wood sailboat, a pocket cruiser with two berths, a main and a jib and a retractable centerboard for shallow water. He keeps it on a trailer and can have her rigged in 25 minutes. Some people take longer than that to get their Waverunners in the water. But a hurry isn't something you want to be in when you're building such a thing. He figures he's got 1,200 hours in it. That's 10 hours a week, 30 weeks a year for four years.

"Oh, I loved it, let me tell you," Clements said. "I'd get done dinner at 7:30 or 8, and I'd be feeling a little tired, and then I'd have a cup of coffee and I'd go out to work on the boat and before I knew it, I'd be out there at midnight."

She was born during a "wish" visit to the Philadelphia Boat Show. At one point Clements' eyes settled on a 16-foot plastic sailboat, and when he saw the price, well, he almost suffered a knockdown. What he said will surprise no one: "I wouldn't give them $15,0000 for that Clorox bottle. I'll go build one myself." He built her at least three times, once in his head, once on paper and once for real. He liked it so much that he's taken to designing other wooden boats, with the help of a naval architect from Annapolis, MD, and he sells the plans around the world. His object is to design wood boats that are as easy to build, as maintenance-free and as seaworthy as possible. Apparently he's good at it. His designs have been reviewed favorably in Wooden Boat magazine and others.

Clements' hull is basically a "sandwich" of wood and plastic. Topside, the boat is all gorgeous wood. And inside, wow, it's a cave of gleaming varnish over wood. No fiberglass boat in the world can match that look, that smell, that feel.

Look at her. Talk about the lust born of spring's warmth. What a sweet boat.

"The whole ride is different. The feel, the smell....When I go inside, all I see is wood," Clements said. "I like that. When all I see is wood and bronze, that excites me." Yes, we understand. We really do. God help us all.