Hi Rose, picking a boat is tough. Figure that you're already addicted and you'll be building more than one. Fall in love with a design and build it. Don't worry about difficulty; you'll pull it off.

Re Strips: I planed my (3) feature strips right on the boat (pictured below right). It worked great. The Bead and Cove strips were more of a hassle than I thought. Western Red Cedar is really easy to plane. Next time I'll do the whole boat that way.

- Chip