Hi all - its great, to say the least, to find this welcoming and so easy to use site. My wife and I are mature sailors, canoers, kayakers, and even windsurfing in my younger days. We are recently retired and now snowbirding between Florida - Pine Island, near Ft Myers - and Rockland Maine where my wife is from.
I own a Compac 23 sloop in Florida (photo below) that gets lots of compliments - my favorite saying being "Life is too short to own an ugly boat" and am enjoying mostly day sails on her.
I put together a starter model WAY back when - it is very similar to the Flattie boat by Corel which I saw in the very helpful introductory New modelers forum. One deck, one mast, simple rigging. I remember enjoying that and it not taking too much time. This probably will only be worked on in Maine for 6 months at a time where I have plenty of room - very little room in Florida for anything like this.
It is a dream come true to read the advice to those new or with very little experience. I am thinking of starting with something like Flattie or maybe a little more difficult one. And also buying the combo? which comes with tools etc. It must be fun to communicate with others working on the same boat too!
I find its the sails that turn me on so that will be one criteria. While there is certainly a huge amount of research I can do just with information I have read here about kit selection, of course any suggestions are welcome.