As a steel boat owner, I may be the best person to say, "for your first
project, use wood".

Steel is a wonderful material for a tough, strong boat. It has two problems
as a first project, however:
1) even skilled welders have a learning curve in putting together plating
that is fair and smooth without heat distortion.
2) steel is not well suited to boats under 25 feet LOA (others would draw
the line higher or lower, but there's a line). Small steel boats are very
heavy because the thinnest metal you can weld easily and won't rust through
in a heartbeat is too heavy.

So build a small wood boat -- plywood, strips, carvel, lapstrake -- whatever
makes your heart go pitty pat.

If you choose to use steel, then be careful to pick a design that is suited
to the material -- we're used to seeing fancy curves in steel cars, but
small steel boats have to built in shapes that can be bent from flat sheets,
not pressed into curves in expensive dies.

And build small. Boats are expensive because they take a lot of time to
build. Time and cost are roughly proportional to weight, so if you double
the length, you'll take eight times longer to build it.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


.."John Smith" wrote in message
...
Hello,
I've always wanted to build a boat and have decided to start with one
from a book by a man last named Rahl, I don't have it with me. I've worked
with both wood and steal extensively and I am drawn towards wood. If I were
going to build with steal (metal) I would only need a few new tools though.
I'm just looking for personal experiences, mainly with the Hull.

--
Thank You,
Freddie L. Richard