This is a question of preference of individual modellers,
90%of my boats are wooden hulled.
These I coat with very fine glass cloth and ezekote resin to give a hard skin.
Then primed with halfords rattle can high build primer, followed by normal primer, and finally top coat.
Not forgetting the most important bit, carefully rubbing down with fine grade wet and dry between each coat till you are happy with the surface.
When you do this, is again personal preference. My preference is to paint the Hull before working on the upper part of the model but after making sure everything fits.
As I said this is my way. You have to do it the way that suits you and also suits the model.
Cheers Colin.