To Build or Buy the next sailboat - that is the question...

I toyed with the idea of building the next boat.  After all, there are MANY sites available with lots of unique plans that have definite possibilities for the type of sailboat that I was looking for.  I have the necessary woodworking skills and could certainly handle the task.  My only previous experience was in building a 2 man wood and fiberglass Kayak from plans and templates that were once provided by the FolBot company. 

My real pipe dream however would be to build a boat using aluminum as the hull material.  Aluminum would be almost as easy to work with as wood and I could certainly learn to weld aluminum by taking one of the many courses offered in local technical colleges.  The cost of aluminum would be high but the end product would be no heavier than a vessel built of wood.  The obvious advantage would be that there would be no need for fiberglassing the hull to make it watertight.  A secondary thought was that the aluminum would retain much of it's value and could eventually be resold for recycling when the time came to give up sailing.  I have no misconceptions about the very limited value of a home built sailboat in the used market.

I did spend a while looking at available plans that could be revised for aluminum rather than wood construction.  However, in the final analysis, my desire was to sail and not take a year or more to build a boat before I could actually sail again.

The end game - build was a nice idea - but this was going to be a time to buy the next boat.