: You spend more time figuring out how to build it than you spend actually
: building it. The 2nd. boat takes "far" less time.

I didn't record working time on my first boat, but at one time I estimated
it at 700 hours. I think that must include time sleeping ...

The second boat was quick because it had a stitch and glue hull, but slow
because it had a complex stripping scheme on the deck, realised in a mix
of softwoods (Pine and WRC) and hardwoods (Purpleheart and Padauk) neither
of the latter being easy to work (or even to cut into strips). It was fast
because I used VCP/Kajaksport hatches, but slow because I used a milled
cockpit coaming ... and so on ... It took 280 hours from Christmas to Easter
2004 (or was it 2003?). And it got varnished about 18 months later after it
had done numerous trips.

The next boat ought to be "far" quicker, especially as it is much smaller
(only 1.92 metres long). But somehow I doubt that will work, since a
whitewater playboat has a lot more curvy strips, and various safety
features that have to be built in. But no hatches ...

The "second" boat has been on the drawing board for eight years, and several
hundred hours of tweaks and redesigns. Could be another few hundred hours
before I decide I really ought to build the dang thing, by which time it
could well be the fifth boat :-)

So don't believe any estimates you see here. Make sure your workshop has
good lighting and a comfy chair for contemplating the next step(s). Next
week you could be anywhere from paddling the boat to having your fourteenth
go at getting the first two strips to your satisfaction ... It all depends
on you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

My advice is to make the first one quick and adequate, and get out paddling.
Then let the second boat bring out the perfectionist in you.

Andy