: Like Bill said, you can't really compare carbon fiber and wood, as
: in most cases one would never be substituted for the other.

Well, from my perspective, the answer to the lack of comparison is a big YES and a big NO.

Carbon is rarely used as a stand-alone shell material. I have seen pure carbon kayaks fresh out of a bagged mold with no cores present, but it's rare, it's testy and it isn't for the everyday guy.

When it comes to building a cored carbon skinned boat, the process is very much like that which one uses for a wooden boat. (e.g. a set of forms upon which you build your core prior to laminating with your preferred material) You do not have to vacuum bag to skins to get a good laminate. Vacuum bagging will produce a lighter, higher strength-to-weight ratio hull than without the technique, but it is not empirically necessary.

Fairing a foam core is just about the same as doing it on a wooden boat... maybe even a bit easier, as the material is easier to remove.

Two halves of the hull are built, one at a time and then assembled to create a final, enclosed hull volume. Foam cored boats are built with horizontal, as well as vertical joining seams, so the process is very familiar to wooden boat builders in this fashion.

A well built, carbon skinned, foam cored boat is going to be lighter than a wooden cored boat (look at the typical Olympic Class craft being produced and you'll see that carbon is the material of choice for a light and strong boat for elite athletes). Carbon and foam boats will not have the same puncture resistance as will a wooden cored boat, so there is a big plus for wood in this regard. If puncture resistance is not a part of your design description, then it might pay to look around at the various methods for building that are available.

Wood VS Carbon aesthetics... well, it all depends on personal preferences and desired, end-use applications as to which one looks the best. Subjective determinations, such as this, are all over the map from person to person, so to haul that potential into an argument is asking for an indeterminate outcome.

You guys should not be intimidated by the sound of working with carbon and foam as a suitable kayak building medium. Once you get into it, the differences will simply drift away and you'll learn to select the material and techniques that best suit your design brief and chosen use regimen.

Look around, have fun and keep an open mind.