Morris,

When I started I chose the worst possible (complicated) boat of all to build.
I had made some very simplistic hulls for a catamaran rowboat, but it obviously did not give me enough practice to feel confident.

So I built a bow of the boat. 4' of the bow, using the forms for the boat.
This is enough to learn quite a bit (not all of course) from setting up the forms, to cutting strips, to doing the stripping, sanding out the outside, sanding the inside, glassing outside, then inside. Filling the weave and sanding out to my standard of perfection (wasn't very high at first). I forgot about gluing the deck to the hull.

4' allows you to cut your strips from a couple of 2x4s, Not much investment. And a little bit for decorative accents if you want to try.
Also making a supporting jig means you can do all the work on a table top (you can share your joy with your wife if you dare).
The best thing is that it costs very little for a big learning curve.

One of the things I did was to make two different decorative designs on one hull. My son picked out what he liked, then we modified it to be what he really thought was good.
Choosing a decorative design is very challenging for most people. Several times I just had to do what I wanted since I couldn't get any suggestions. So you get to practice that also.

And if you are not happy it is cheap enough (and quick enough) to do over again.

Here is a picture of two different noses I've done (there was a third but I didn't glass it and it fell apart).

"Just a Suggestion" :)

The one on the right has two different patterns on the hull
The one on the left I never completed, so it is still on the very rudimentary tool, which you can see in one of the pictures.

One of these days I'm going to mount them on a board and hang them from the wall like a Moose head.