I am building from plans a 10 and 12  wood duck hybrid. Heres the thing with plans, you get a lot of mismatched information. Or a lot of missing information, and this is true with CLC, so you have to be able to interpret what they are trying to say. Designers do this on purpose.

For example, first thing I noticed was the plans on the ducks says the coamings are made from 6mm ply when the book says 4 mm. The scarf they say 8:1 on 4 mm ply thats 1 1/4 inches the plan say its 2 inches. The station/ form lines dont line up from bottom planks to topside planking. I could go on but I think you get the idea.

I am only at the stitching stage and on the ducks. it requires a lot of room to lay 16 feet or there abouts of ply and be able to draw the lines using battens. I enjoy building from plans, but next time I think I will order wood parts only or design my own.

Bruce

Half my boats have been from kits, the rest from plans or scratch. Building from plans isn't any harder than building from a kit, just more tasks. All the tasks are made of smaller simpler tasks, just like the rest of the build.

As Bruce says, you have to have room to lay out the wood, but since drawing lines on wood is quiet and makes no mess and uses no toxic chemicals, it can be done on the floor inside the house. Just have something soft to kneel on.

You have to be really careful when you draw the lines from the plans. Check your math and try to do some consistency checking. For example, 2 pieces that butt up against each other should be the same size at the joint, that kind of thing.

Cutting the wood is another thing to do. You have to be able to handle large pieces of wood. Depending on the boat you're building they may be heavy. They will definitely take up lots of room. The actual cutting can be done with power or hand tools. If you use power tools you may need to allow for splintering along the edges. If you have any scraps left over from your previous build, practice on them before starting on the real boat.

The final difference is scarphing. Kits have pre-cut scarphs, or more and more these days, puzzle joints. You'll have to cut your own. Some people find it scary, but if you pay attention it's easy.

Once you've cut out all the pieces of wood i\the rest is just like building from a kit.

When you calculate the cost difference, be sure to factor in the shipping. It may turn out that the kit would be the better value unless you can get the wood locally.

Have fun,

Laszlo

   Only other thing I would add is when cutting out the patterns leave the line when cutting and sand to it

I'm working on my second build, both have been from plans. Mostly beacause I live in Ak and have not found a way to get kits up here affordably, plus I like the scarf over the puzzle joint, though some of my latest scarfs leave a bit to be desired.

My first build was a kaholo and now I'm working on a dory.  It has taken roughly 30 hrs to make most of the kit from plans. Nothing terribly difficult, just space to scarf 4x 18 foot sheets of plywood, and a lot more steps and time. Fun though!

One thing that's in the pipeline here is a video how-to for plans builders, covering all of the little helpful tricks in getting from paper to parts.  

   John thats awesome, being the first stitch and glue I have done it would help. I have read Dynamite Paysons book years ago but have built cold mold and big boats, 50ftrs.

thanks again for your efforts 

Bruce

   Thanks for all that.  I like that you can buy just the manual and plans.  After looking it all over, it would give me the option to then just buy the wood kit parts..