Western red cedar probably has the most variation in color, although redwood can have some very blond wood as well as dark. Below is a picture from Newfound Woodworks - http://newfound.com/strpinfo.htm - showing some of the variation.

Once the wood is cut it will also start to change. Western red cedar seems to get darker where some other woods tend to get lighter. This will happen even after the boat is coated in epoxy and varnish. Your only real chance to get wood that will match in color is to get it from the same board or tree and even then there will be variations.

> In buying some western red cedar to try to match some strips that I
> already had cut, I bought what seemed to match the color of my strips.
> When cutting the new strips they were very much lighter in color than the
> exterior of the board. I have found this to be true only with cedar and
> not with redwood. Is it exposure to light that makes the outside of the
> board darker? Does this mean that the cedar strips will get darker if
> exposed to the sun sometime before I varnish them? addison