Bob England is spot on. We are just completing a "two year project" begun in 2000 to build a pilothouse design on a 42' downeast hull. I had been involved in overseeing construction of 48' ketch rigged sailboats in Taiwan in the 80's and with my final escape from the surly bonds 8-5 employment went shopping for a modest trawler to do coastal and inland cruising. I was blessed with free access to a spacious workshop and adjacent hard surface area to park a boat so decided I'd rather do it from scratch than live with wear and tinkering of previous owners. I was actively pursuing a new 38' downeast hull from New England when a 42' Bruno-Stillman turned up nearby that had been totally gutted by a local boatbuilder/fisherman. Incidentally, the New England downeast builders will build to any stage you choose from bare hull to completion and the early stage packages are quite reasonably priced. A few opinions drawn from our experience: A major rebuild or finishing out such as ours demands a full time effort. We estimated 9000 man hours to produce the sailboats in the factory environment in Taiwan and our effort on this boat exceeded that by 50% or more. Our 1000 sq ft shop was often crowded. A sizable number of quality table and hand tools are essential. Unless you are located near a boating center online shopping skills are essential. It is also helpful to be able arrange access to wholesale suppliers of principal materials such and fiberglass products, paint, wood and metals. For us this was a labor of love and we have no regrets about the time or effort but would hesitate to recommend it unless the conditions mentioned above can be met. We have spent about $120,000 which includes all of the bells and whistles. We expect to recover that but the time will be written off as recreation. Had we to do it over we would have begun with a new hull which would have significantly increased the resale value but would have had to have been a smaller boat due to transportation and entering costs. A few recent pictures are posted at picasaweb.google.com/lropka and our fledgling blog is at charisways.blogspot.com. Larry Ropka Charis 42' pilothouse Fort Walton Bch Fl