: My niece spent the afternoon working on the boats yesterday.

Sounds to me like she would be an ideal person to work with on that skin-on-frame boat you were thinking of building. You can design it yourself to suit her size, and draw out the frames. Let her cut them out on the bandsaw. Then let her go at putting on the chines and stringers, and stretching a skin over it.

In a few afternoons like this you'll have someone to paddle with.

Just a thought

PGJ