: you will never have a need for a plywood boat
: if you also have one with a smoothly-curved hull.

Paddle both before committing. Hard and soft chined boats offer different
advantages. The first boat I built was all strip, but I like paddling hard
chined boats in a lot of circumstances, so my second was a hybrid (I love
strip decks, but stripping is hard work, and for a hard-chined boat, is not
the most logical way forward). Of the boats I have on my next-to-build list,
three are hard chined and one is either multi-chine or will be stripped and
rounded ... Some may be a hybrid with the chines made of hardwood and the
panels filled in with ply - haven't yet worked out if this will work out.

Also, if you want a flat panel (a low aft deck for rolling, for example),
plywood is a more sensible material then strips, which tend to be stronger
when built in a curve. You can always add design with an inlay or other
veneer work ...

Andy