: Plenty of photos there will be!

: Thanks again for your help. Today I began gutting the garage to make room.
: Before I bit the bullet and order plans and forms, I'm wondering about how
: much this is going to cost. Already at $219 for plans and forms and
: neither are actually in the finished boat! I'd like to do this on as much
: of a budget as possible, spending when it's worth the time saved. I don't
: need the absolute best materials available, just good quality. Is $700 or
: less possible? It looks like I'm getting the worst of both worlds doing
: the hybrid since ply is more expensive but I need forms anyway.... $800 is
: probably the point I'd try a SOF.....

I wouldn't worry too much about the extra one or two hundred $. You can save that by making you own paddle and tow rope. Go for quality materials if you can. It seems a shame to put loving care and a lot of hours into such a project and skimp on the quality of the materials, especially the ply. Quality ply will be nicer to work with, have a longer life and is often more beautiful in its colour.

Even with the best quality materials you will have a boat for under a thousand $ that would cost anyone else thousands, even for something like it in GRP, never mind wood.

If you really want to come out ahead, get a licence from the designer to build two (nick in this case), Use the same forms on both, and sell the second one for a pot of money. Or build three even and let the third pay for your two. You will need two. One for friends.

Et