You should still find available hamlets or villages near the coastlines, just look around.
To'resk might be one of the better tribes to aim for if you want to focus on shipbuilding, though the geography around some of their native biomes mean you might have to overcome their shallow coastlines (like putting a docking area far out). If you're interested in shipping as well, then Dras probably make for the hardier sailors, at least until Mydarri are discovered. You probably want to avoid areas with a lot of Kypiq though as they are opposed to hurting anything, including plants and trees.
In regards to biomes forested biomes make the better locations, though the rainforest is the place to go if you want solid hardwood. Arid and mountainous regions will have less suitable sources of building materials.
A settlement near a river with ocean access could work too, but you might have problems building larger ships there, like cutters, depending on its depth. So you might want to avoid that solution.
In regards to professions the shipwright profession is unfortunately collapsed into the Woodworker category if you're looking for specific professions. Though you should be able to attract the professions you need later, so I wouldn't get too hung up on that.
To give you one example of a potentially good settlement I'll point you to "The Seaside Village of The Bridge" within the county Ayatana (inside the duchy of Ksana, and Kingdom of Riftwood). This location have seaside access both in its southern and western directions, as well as a good variety of local resources. Professions indicate it has both lumbering and mining operations going within from the start, both useful for shipbuilding, and it being within the rainforest means you'll be able to acquire hardwood. There's even the potential for a shipwright as there are woodworkers there. To'resk is a minority in the settlement, but for the purpose of finding one with shipbuilding expertise to learn from there's quite a lot of To'resk in this duchy overall (though do note that To'resk often only teach an expertise through marriage); similarly it also have healthy populations of Dras too if you want to attract good sailor candidates later.
Either way, wherever you decide to settle, consider contacting the domain holder, at least afterwards if not beforehand, to not make them unnecessarily paranoid.
