When you go to buy some Okoume ply, and they give you a funny look, or say "never heard of that stuff, but we've got some gaboon marine ply...." Just take the gaboon, it's what Okoume is called here.

They might offer you some hoop pine ply, it's a lot lighter in color than the gaboon but it's less than quarter the price ($16 per sheet versus $83 per sheet). My first response was to say forget it, but now that I've seen Andrew Eddy's sheerwater baidarka (He's another Sydney-sider) that he made using the hoop pine, I'd give it a go. Very nice looking boat.

Paul.