A friend of mine is building this boat and so far so good - I am thinking about getting the rowboat/dinghy as a starter kit - looking forward to a new hobby

Midwest's Sakonnet Daysailer is a good first or second wood kit for developing skills to move on to more advanced kits, while providing a fine display model. With basic woodworking/modeling skills, the kit can be completed in about 15-20 hours. The materials are simple, the parts count is low, the plans are clear and the instruction booklet is easy to follow. Completing the model provides the satisfaction of creating many small parts and assembling them into a display model that takes up only a small amount of space. A useful resource is found by searching the model name or wooden model boat building on YouTube, which will have a number of videos that are very helpful for first time boat builders. This kit uses very basic skills and requires minimal tools for completion. Small and medium Xacto knives, various sizes of rubber bands (or hobby clamps), cyanoacrylate (super glue) and aliphatic resin wood glue (Elmer's wood glue) and coarse, medium and fine grades of sandpaper is all that is required to complete the model. Painting can be done using either wood stains or a paint kit available for the purpose. If an 8-10 year old child has an interest in making things, this would be a good kit for a parent/child project.