Used a lot of sapele in my first boat, an Outer Island...in a center deck stripe, on deck accents, along the shear and waterline. The hull was mostly cedar, but I used some ash in the deck and laminated with sapele in the stems, coaming and some fittings. (see http://www.connyak.org/Boatbuilders/Articles/oliverbloch.htm)
Agree with what's been said about sapele, beautiful but relatively heavy and brittle. The ash is strong and bends beautifully, but very hard. The kayak was very nice but a little heavy (50+ lbs.), partly from the hardwood and partly from a novice hand with the epoxy.
Nick's point about sanding is worth heeding... keep the sandpaper fresh and let it do the cutting or you'll grind out the softwood.
Most of my boats since have been WRC... you can create a lot of accents and contours using the range of color available from dark brown to light.
Alaskan yellow cedar works beautifully, a nice light yellow/amber color with little grain and only slightly heavier than WRC, and one can get some very long pieces for the shear creating a nice accent on a long boat.
Eastern white pine also works well but with a yellowish result and an occasional knot.

I'm going to use some sitka spruce along the shear so we'll see how that goes.
It's all good (and some is even better!)