Brian,

The lumber yard I have has 12' x 6" x 8" for less than $2/board foot. I think I could build 2 SOF boats or more for that one timber. Haven't built anything with Basswood, the timbers I can get just look extremely clear.
I did have to look about 6 times at the big box, and I always sorted to the bottom of a 4'x4' stack. One time I found 4 perfect 2x6x12' boards, so you have to persist.
What is the weight of the Nylon? George Dyson has about 6 different weights. 8oz Dacron was $2/foot 60" wide. Below is some information and his email address which is the only way to contact him, he does not have a website.

A list of available materials is here (as a PDF):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18771264/MaterialNotes.pdf
And a set of close-up photos of the different weaves for comparison is here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18771264/WeaveComparison.pdf

Hope this of some help at least.
best wishes,
George

-------------------------------------------------------------------
George Dyson e-mail: gdyson@gmail.com
Dyson, Baidarka & Company tel: 360-734-9226
435 West Holly Street, Bellingham WA, 98225
___________________________________________________________________

Marc

: Yea, I looked at Lowe-Depot a couple times and the only thing that
: was reasonably clear was the tongue and groove. I found one
: piece of 12 foot cedar that was clear but it had other issues...
: I finally found some spruce 1x6 that had some tiny knots so I
: think I can make the single chine stringers since they are
: larger.

: Have you built any boats with basswood? We've carved with it and I
: like the feel but I've never seen a piece longer than 36".

: Plywood SOF has the ease of construction advantage because you can
: attached the plywood to the stringers and then trim it to shape.
: The stations don't stay in the boat, only the 3/4"
: stringers, so the weight increase isn't that much. But all that
: is moot because this boat is going to be the 950 ballistic nylon
: from Spirit Lake unless someone can tell me where to get similar
: material for less than $11.50/yd.