Can I upgrade boat parts or do I need to dismantle and rebuiid?

[pull my finger]

Wondering if its possible to upgrade boat parts e.g bamboo to wooden hull or if I have to dismantle the existing and build again from scratch?

[Thornbury]

You have to dismantle a bamboo hull to replace it with a wooden one, but you get your mats back, so you don't lose anything. It allows you to grow your ship and replace/upgrade bits as you get more materials.

[Hwk1901]

would still be useful if you could replace without dismantling

[RbdPanda]

Originally posted by Thornbury:

You have to dismantle a bamboo hull to replace it with a wooden one, but you get your mats back, so you don't lose anything. It allows you to grow your ship and replace/upgrade bits as you get more materials.

This isn't entirely true. Make sure that you remove any items you have inside of any storage containers on a hull. It won't return those items to you, they just disappear when you dismantle.