Butternut or White Walnut is a beautiful wood. I milled up one of my Butternut trees just over two years ago. I used some last year to build the coaming lip of my Great Auk. It did not bend well but I got the job done and remember that is a coaming lip where there are some pretty drastic curves. As far as strength goes I do not have any data but from my experience of working with it I can say that it seems to be okay. I think it would be very comparable to cedar in strength.

It also wets out very nice and has a great color. I plan on doing my next boat with Butternut. I would say go for it.