Smile, I agree with Rod and George. I have built one 38 foot boat--I have done compete restoration (strip out the most of the interior, rewire, resystem, re rig)on several boats, purchased two new boats, and the other 20 or so were used in various state of repair from an 3 month old trade up, to a boat which had sat unused for 6 years. The reason I built a boat was I didn't have the $ to afford the boat I wanted at that time (Divorce wipe out), I had grown up in a family where wood working/boat building was part of the rountine, so there was not a steep learning curve--plus I had worked with friends helping to build their boats. The boat we built did have features not available in production boats--so I fit several of Rod's criteria. I also would not build another boat, but I still rebuild and restore. Cost--very well documented slightly over $21,000, cruised and sailed for 2 years, and the wife wanted a larger pilot house boat. Sold for $68,000, a profit of $47,000, and pricing out my wife and my work at about $3. an hour! I purchased much of the material from bankrupt boat builders in the late 70's in S. Calif...I owned a company and got OEM prices. on that which I could not buy at auction etc. I often bought large lots, and sold off what I didn't need by the piece for a profit. I still have thousands of SS nuts bolts and screws, plus other fittings from 30 years ago. On the other hand, most of you know I have been an extreme advocate of "do it now" Do it while you can. I have no problem with amateur boat building, but as I noted in a private E mail to George--of the 30 boats being built at the yard I worked on my boat in, less than 25 % made a significant voyage--for many, just building the boat was the journey. Some spent 20 years and not yet finished. Some builders died before the boat was built. Some abandoned the project, and stopped paying space rent. One person almost died, when his poorly built boat fell into pieces off Mexico. He was rescued by fishermen, or he would have died. There are people who spend a full lifetime building a boat. We budgeted 8 hours a day, 14 hours a day on the weekends for two years, with no vacations and met our goal of finished in two years. It was brutal. I had people to help if necessary, plenty of power, and air, plus the proper tools to do the job. As I see it the beauty of an "Idlewild" type of hull is that the boat is very simple--it would be easy to build--and hopefully George has some feed back on the real life costs of have the hull built (incidently the cost of the hull is only a relitatively small part of the cost of the completed boat). When you purchase a production boat, you pay for several layers of management, labor at $30+ an hour (I know you pay Mexicans $10 an hour--but I have run businesses, and know the real overhead), advertising and dealerships profits--so there are several layers of costs in the production boat. If you are sufficiently motivated you can build a boat to circumnavigate which almost anyone can afford. But beware of the "traps" along the way! If you want to build--take the time to work with others, or even a skilled ship wright. Even with good plans, and outlines people take shortcuts and end up with misserable projects. Regards to all Bob Austin