I suspect you guys are probably in the majority. Here's my final(no promises) argument for starting small.Dougster wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 9:09 am I'm in the Barra/Capeman camp. Use the money spent on the boat you don't want to help build the one you do. If you can build the GF16 as a first build then you can build the TX18 the same way. It's just some more of the same. Aside from money, the key thing to a successful build is just to start and not quit. Mistakes will happen pretty much no matter what and they can all be fixed. That said, the GF16 is a fine boat and one I would consider if I ever get rid of my LB22.
Dougster
If you go through the whole process soup-to-nuts on small scale, it will free your mind to focus on quality when you start your ultimate boat, instead of it being mired in entry-level issues and questions. It will allow you to focus on your vision of what you want the boat to end up like instead of focusing on how to best mix epoxy, which epoxy to use, how to deal with blush/air bubbles, what to use for fairing compound, what to fill the glass weave with, how to best form fillets, etc etc etc. Get all that crap cleared out of your mind with a small build so on the big one, you can focus on the boat you're building and not the building process itself.
I'll freely admit to being a "Look-before-leap" type, though I wasn't always.