The Tornado plans & Templates are availabe from the ITA...but I believe there are rules about homemade builds...something to the effect of only being allowed to build one boat per year as a amatuer builder. If you want to build more in order to sell them as a business, you need a builder's certificate from the ITA for the boats to be class legal.
As to construction methods, the plans only define the overall hull section shape, dimensions of fittings and their locations, the minimum weight and also stipulate the boat must support a crew of specified weight with both hulls completely flooded (safety). I don't believe the plans outline how the boat must be built to meet these requirements. This allows for innovation is design & construction techniques.
Wooden boats of cedar were extremely stiff in their day, but were somewhat heavier than the same vintage glass boats. They were competitive, with many top crews sailing them at the Worlds. Problem was that as labor & material costs rose, wood became basically an "exotic" material to build a boat out of. That plus the added maintenance issues with wood made them less popular.
I've got a friend in Sacramento that just purchased a very nice condition wooden boat ("Holden" I think) for a song. It had been stored for the past 20 years and has almost no hours on it. What a find! Hopefully he'll bring it down to the LA region this summer for a few events where we can compare it to my Marstrom performance-wise.
Mike.