David,
I'll ditto everything said by everyone. I very much agree that there is no one beginer boat, and no one type of construction that should be considered beginer.

Usage is the big question, fresh water or ocean? Day trips or week long paddles? The designers have done nicely to make all of these designs easy to build. Best advice I know is: Build the boat you really want.

I would also recommend checking out the designer's design philosphy, and see if it matches with your building philosphy. In some ways its like picking Chevy and Fords. Part of it is what ya like to drive , and part of it is what ya like to work on. When you go to the dealer is it a good expereince. DO ya get good and friendly advise, when you call the parts dept. David, we have a great group of designers to work with so have fun checking them out as well. Check out the books on building. Not jsut one designers, but read everything you can get your hands on. I read once on this board an apt description of baot building. that said Baot building is a sereis of problems to be solved. The more shop tips and know how you stick in the noggin up front the better prepared you are for the fun of problem solving.

In the end you'll probobly find a suite of boats your like from differnet designers. That's how it starts... More on that later.

If you can ,try out all the boats that strike your fancy. All boats are a set of performance and operational tradeoffs. If there is a beginer verses experience factor I'd say its the initial vs secondary stability ratio of the boat. However, your going to become expert at paddling the boat you build. So in some ways that is less of a factor in the long-term. If you can, get to the meet at the beach or the Rendvous try them all out. If not, tell us where your hailing from and perhaps you can try some of our boats out locally. When you start trying them on, in the water, The one your supposed to build will grab your heart strings and you'll be hooked.

Finally, the last bit of advise is one I grabbed of George Cushing. Be careful about getting started in boat building....Ya can't jsut build one!

Keep us aprised of your new project, send lots of pictures. We love celebrating successes!

!RUSS