: I'm not worried about the process or strength of scarfing, although
: strength to weight to cost is an issue.

Another advantage of butt joints is that you can lay out shorter pieces and then join them up, trickier to do with a scarf. In my (small) workspace, moving long skinny thin pieces of plywood around is difficult.
: It is a completely slab-sided design with defined ridges at the
: tunersuk, so shape is not an issue were it in plywood. In strip,
: the construction would be the same as a Black Pearl.
If you do a hybrid S&G/strip you will probably need sheer clamps (I did,anyway). Even the Black Pearl uses doubled strips (at least) for clamps.

: Here is the other info:

: Western Red Cedar: 23 lb/cubic ft

: Basswood (local): 26 lb/cubic ft 77% less per bd/ft than WRC

: Northern White Pine (local): 25 /lb cubic ft 60% less per bd/ft
: than WRC

: Since it will not be finished bright I've been thinking basswood
: all along,

That makes a lot of sense- basswood is usually clear and easy to work, and IMO is tougher (less brittle) than WRC. The wood is really just the core for the glass layers, anyway. And, basswood is a lot more pleasant to sand than WRC (for me) - less allergenic. YMMV.

:but I don't want to overlook plywood, particularly
: because I have even less time than money, and plywood would go
: together faster.
Are you planning to use software to develop panel offsets, or use forms and battens to scribe the panel shapes?

:I don't intend to baby any boat, although I am
: careful with my bright boat. I am totally prepared to do repairs
: the day after I have to make a surf landing on a limestone slab
: (or worse). If you paddle around here, no regardless of what you
: paddle, you have to keep in the back of your mind that no matter
: what you intend it will eventually happen.

Yup. "I made it- if I break it I can make it again!"
As I said, even cheap doorskins are surprisingly tough once they have epoxy and glass enveloping them.

With a painted finish, you can use fairing compound to smooth things up. Pretty handy.

Cheers
John