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Smart move. A tender would teach you the basics, and give you something to use while building the big one.  ​An Elementarry or similar would allow you to hone your sailing skills.  ​

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So I have been swamped between work and getting ready for our family vaca, which is going well as a write this.  But, I have still managed to look over things some more, and do a bit of reading.   

One clarification I should make was that the ex40 would not be an end goal, but rather a middle step.  Something akin to the cruiser 50/60 or even an alluded to 70 I read about somewhere, would be a live aboard size (for me) and end game. But, baby steps first as it were. So small and easy to make are key. From there I can figure out if I need/want a middle step, or the big step.

Looking at the numbers between your and Bernd’s designs it seems there is an inflection point for time taken to build around 25’-30’ feet between the two methods.  But, I think some of this may well be conflicting assumptions here. If a cruiser 60 is 2000 ish hours (with all that interior and such) and then a sport elementary is <= 1,000 (basically a big beach cat)?  Well this makes little sense to me unless one of those numbers is _a lot_ less than 1,000, and/or the other is off?  Of course there could be something I do not get about intelligent infusion, so if you could shed some light on that it would rock.

Speaking of.  How do the hours break down roughly in terms of pain points?  I have read that building the molds is pretty quick, vacuum infusing itself is less than an hour, and there is little need for surface work once the parts are out of the mold.  So, what are the time consuming steps?  I ask this because I like to take a stab at figuring out work flow or automation optimizations whenever possible. Not saying I will think of anything workable, but I do at least like to try..

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1) Can carry a few (2-5) folks for day sailing / fishing plus say two coolers, two anchors and chain, a small electric outboard / trolling motor and its’ battery(es). 

​Elementarry sails well with 2-3 people, 5 plus cooler etc would be a squash and not perform very well.   Extending the hulls would resolve this.  Either wider or longer.  

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So 2-3 people is probably fine then I think.  I keep trying to aim smaller for the first go as I keep thinking about things.  That said how does it handle 2-3 people, but just have 352 lbs payload?  Maybe that is supposed to be kg payload?  Or, are those just some really light people? :P  As an aside I am 250 lbs, and down 20 lbs in the last four months.  So, even if I hit my mark and am 230 lbs before year end… Then myself, a motor, anchor/chain and such is pretty much 350 lbs right there.  

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6) Will undoubtedly need after sale support.  Ok, so not really a ‘boat thing’ but important none the less.

I can, and sometimes do, talk boats all day long. We offer as much Skype and email advice as you want, and I am more than willing to come over and lend a hand with the building or the sailing, if you pay the air fare, or I am passing through.  

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Pretty awesome support.  Skype I can see for sure.  Visiting and assisting? I can see that sort of thing for a bigger project around complex gotta-get-it-right points like rudders and masts, but not for the small boat.  But, I doubt you are ever going to be 'just passing by' Ohio though, unless you have relatives here. 

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As discussed on the other thread, you could build an Elementarry in ply if saving a few bucks and lack of willingness to try something new were factors outweighing the weight and time savings

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Materials wise I have no skin in the game, ply or composite, it will all be new to me and need at least some tools. Ply is certainly cheaper, but I still favor composite if I have a choice.  No rot down the road, and fairly easy surface repairs.  I also have memories of hand sanding over a lineal mile of trim when we had our house built, so less surface prep is very welcome.  Learned a lesson there to get good tools and work smarter.  

That said the 3D Core foam seems interesting if it works.  I think you were testing PEP/PET? core as one of your samples?  If not, I think they have a distributor in Australia, and if it is indeed cheaper/lighter than Divinycell, then it might be worth a test.   That savings could then be applied to say basalt instead of standard glass and/or maybe something like this http://www.zyvextech.com/znt-boost/ as an epoxy additive.  Let me know if the Zyvex stuff looks legit, and you are interested, and I can try to grab a small sample and send it to you to try.