Originally Posted by Boatmik
Howdy,
Western Red Cedar has become quite expensive over the last years - particularly if you want to avoid knots
Some other choices are
Hoop pine - a bit heavier - probably add about 4kg to the boat.
Paulownia - a bit lighter - which is a good thing. You would have to get it sent over from Melbourne. Some people talk about building the hull a bit thicker to compensate for the slightly lower strength. I wouldn't bother after have built a boat out of balsa strip - which proved fine structurally (but now would be really expensive too).
Try Bones Timber, Duck Flat Wooden boats and the yellow pages
Duck Flat have a nice fine grain NZ pine that is only slightly heavier than cedar too at the moment.
Michael