NAUTICAL HERITAGE DIAGNOSTICS: NEW RESEARCH AND FUTURE OBJECTIVES

In Nautical Heritage, craftsmen remain closely connected to traditional skills, particularly in wooden boatbuilding. Fortunately, this cultural inheritance has ensured the preservation, over the years, of the intangible cultural heritage of boatbuilding tradition. On the other hand, it has encountered reluctance in applying technological advancement to preserve historic boats. This approach has led to the use of some innovative technological advantages, but only where it was already rooted in experience from other fields. Where there was no established experience, the traditional practice of manual survey diagnostics rarely left room for new experimentation. Today, a crucial step in the nautical restoration process is assessing the state of preservation. This evaluation is typically performed by the restoration designer or boatyard manager using traditional tools; however, it is worth noting that in other areas of Cultural Heritage, technological advancements significantly aid designers in restoration projects. In these fields, digital technologies provide a broad, comprehensive overview of the state of preservation of the asset, detailed studies of critical elements or those not easily visible to the naked eye and thus guarantee the possibility of complete analysis while limiting the removal of samples, the dismantling of parts or the risk of damage through more invasive analysis. Considering the emerging innovative solutions and the significant potential, the paper aims to establish a foundational framework for research focused on designing novel tools for non-invasive diagnosis in historical wooden boats.