Boy, I hope you do make it -- you've got some seriously nice boats I'd like to see up close.

I keep wanting to mention that I used cypress for the first, and only time so far, on my Merlin canoe for inwales and outwales. I didn't say anything because it doesn't really apply to the original question, but I will say it was a pleasant surprise. It's reasonably lightweight, machines well, looks great, just worked out perfectly. They never got fiberglasses, just polyurethane spar varnish. Now that they're a couple years old and all dinged up they're more beautiful than ever, I'm really happy with the choice of cypress.