There are, to my knowledge, four manufacturers who produce decent scale ship model kits in wood. Three are American: Bluejacket (www.bluejacketinc.com), Model Shipways (distributed by Model Expo, www.modelexpoonline.com), and A.J. Fisher (www.ajfisher.com). Bluejacket and MS offer solid-hull, plank-on-bulkhead, and plank-on-frame kits (which, generally speaking, ascend in difficulty in that order). Fisher is an old solid-hull firm that just came under new management after a long period of dormancy. It only offers a couple of kits so far, but I have the impression that they're of high quality.
The other firm I recommend is a British one, Caldercraft, also known as Jotika. Its plank-on-bulkhead kits are hard to find in the U.S., and I've never actually seen one in the flesh. On the basis of reviews and photos, though, I have the clear impression that they're excellent. They're also extremely expensive. The Calder H.M.S. Victory, on 1/72 scale, costs over a thousand dollars.
Most of the other wood kits on the market are made in continental Europe, and experienced scale modelers don't take them seriously. (Examples of the manufacturers in question are Mamoli, Artesania Latina, Corel, Euromodel, and Mantua.) Those are the kits I call HECEPOBs. (Hideously Expensive Continental European Plank On Bulkhead.) There are exceptions, but generally they're characterised by mediocre materials, impractical construction methods, parts recycled from kit to kit, incomprehensible plans, inadequate instructions, and utter disregard for historical reality. They aren't scale models, and I strongly recommend that scale modelers avoid them like the plague.
There seems to be one partial exception. An Italian firm called Amati has recently begun a series of British sailing warships under the label "Victory Models." These are designed by a gentleman who used to be affiliated with Calder, and appear (again, I haven't actually seen one) to be excellent kits.
For starters, though, I recommend a solid hull kit from either Model Shipways, Bluejacket, or Fisher. I can second Sumpter's recommendation of the Model Shipways Phantom. Another good starter kit from MS is the eighteenth-century schooner Sultana. (If you go to the "Group Builds" section of this Forum you'll find a thread in which several beginners tackled that kit - with lots of in-progress photos. I suspect all those gents would endorse the kit.) The MS Harriet Lane and Dapper Tom are a bit more elaborate and time-consuming, but probably not beyond the determined beginner who has experience in other forms of model building.
Good starter kits in the Bluejacket line include the Maine fishing sloop Yankee Hero and the New York pilot schooner Mary Taylor. Both the current A.J. Fisher kits are pilot schooners, and presumably would make good starter projects.
My number one suggestion to anybody getting into this hobby is: start with a relatively small ship in a relatively large scale - at least 1/8" = 1', and preferably larger. Too many people want to start with a frigate or a clipper ship. The learning curve in ship modeling is fairly short, but pretty steep. The typical beginner who starts with an advanced kit improves rapidly, with the result that after he's been working on the model for six months the stuff he did five months ago no longer looks good to him. That's one reason why the vast majority of advanced ship model kits that get bought never get finished. It makes far more sense to start with something that can get finished in three or four months, regarding that time as an investment in the big project that will come later. Building a Phantom or a Sultana will equip the new modeler with all sorts of skills in woodworking, plans reading, rigging, and virtually every other skill that's relevant to the Constitution or Flying Fish down the road - and, in the process, will give him a mighty handsome model to put on the mantle.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.