Gingyer,
That's a shame as Braehead won a 'Best Small Museum' award in 2005. Perhaps it tries to be all things to all people but it does present (I think) a decent few hours wandering. For those who do not know how a ship is built, it gives a good education.
Dumbarton houses the Denny test tank which until recently was still used by Strathclyde University for ship model testing. If you are interested in how commercial ship models are prepared and how these are tested in the wave tank (still one of the largest in Europe) then you'll find it worthwhile.
The big problem for the SMM is that for years it has run on a shoestring with a lot of (unpaid) work performed by volunteers. It has always had to prioritise preservation with insufficient funds with the result that it has not been able to keep up with the work load and ships neglected soon start to fall apart. The restoration of the puffer, Spartan, is almost complete and of the 19th c. Kyles is (I believe) still ongoing but these were/are being performed by donations-in-kind from commerial shipowners and shipyards. The SMM collection has now been officially recognised as the definitive Scottish collection but, when it comes to Government funding, it has to compete with other worthy causes, e.g. Scottish Mining Museum, and there is simply not enough money to go round. Given the present financial climate, this is not going to change in the short term.
The SMM has tried to keep a lot of vessels afloat when perhaps it can be argued that they would be better off bringing them ashore as static exhibits but all praise to them for trying.
Like everything else, it comes down to £sd.
Go here for revamped website
http://www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/Barry M