Jess,
I can see you have already gotten some great advice. I am just about to finish my first kayak and there are three things that stand out to me...

1. Read the plans/instructions over and over and over again until you know the process in your head and understand it. Not that you will need to have everything memorized but it will help as you work through the plans/instructions during construction. Anything you don't understand can be answered through this forum. It many cases other people asked the questions I was going to and I just followed the thread and my situation was solved as well.

2. Building area. If you have a garage or shop or basement where you can set up and work at your pace then you are going to save some time. If you build outdoors such as I am doing you will have to watch the weather, be prepared and compartmentalize the process so you can wrap up and clean up at the end of each work session and protect your work. It can add time to the process. I am really enjoying building my kayak but having a shop to work in would make it so much easier and enjoyable. But that being said people have built these things in their apartments and townhomes and outside with great success.

3. When you decide on a boat model and manufacturer, check in at this forum and let everyone know. You will be amazed at how many people that frequent this board have websites showing the progress of their building. I have at least 30 links in my own browser to just such sites. They are chocked with advice and being able to see someone else's work can really clear a lot of the gray areas up.

Good luck, I hope to hear of your progress here in the future.

--Tony

: Hello,
: My nameis Jess and I'm interested in building a wooden kayak. I have no idea
: how to go about this process. I am a beginner and had a couple of
: questions. How are hard are these plans for beginners to figure out? After
: buying the plans how much generally does the rest of the wood and supplies
: usually cost? How much time does it take to build a wooden kayak? The
: patterns on the boats that I have seen, are those included in the plans
: and if not how would I go about that? I hope any of you could shed light
: on this for me. Thanks, and I would appreciate any help at all.