Impulse control issues

I'm going to try to go to the local Builder's Warehouse lumberyard today to scope out the pine planking. Hopefully they've got some relatively clear stuff I can use to make the stringers and chine logs. The snobby part of me wants to buy western red cedar or nice douglas fir instead of lowly white pine.

I've been dealing with the temptation to go buy a big jug of West System epoxy and saturation coat all the plywood. I know this project is an attempt to prove we can build a low cost, low tech boat, but the desire to use proper epoxy is strong. The plan is to use tubes of construction adhesive, primer and paint instead of epoxy.

I have to have faith in the design/build plan and not upgrade materials until it is proven necessary.

<insert dramatic pause here>

Returned from the lumberyard - haven't bought anything yet as I was driving the little Toyota Tercel and it is not exactly 10' plank friendly. For the two boats I have to buy 8 x (1"x8"(undressed) x 10') and 2 x (1"x8"(undressed) x 6'). Even their best quality "clear" pine isn't exactly clear so I'll probably end up buying 2 extra 10' boards so I can throw out stringers with knots that are going to break. I could go down to Adams & Kennedy / Woodsource and buy real clear pine at twice the price, but that isn't in the spirit of the el-cheapo build.

The 2" foam isn't exactly cheap either - a 2'x8' panel was around $20 bucks per - and Eric's napkin math had us needing 3 sheets of 4'x8'. I want to re-confirm this with Eric as that's a hell of a lot of foam. $120 per boat plus tax for foam?

Postscript (July 16) - Later on I discovered that Eric was not planning on using the blue thermal foam - he planned on using the cheap beer cooler style white Styrofoam panels - about $7 per panel. Much cheaper and easier to see lots of people paying for. It does necessitate careful choice in the adhesive department - many adhesives and paints eat white Styrofoam chemically like free beer at a regatta

Postscript (July 17) - We actually only need 3 panels at 2'x8'x2". Robert has three unused panels in his garage I'll "buy" from him during our settling of expenses. The inside of the hull is not packed solid with foam - it is used to fill about 50-60% of the space more for structural support than flotation.