You know, I daydream about these "fussy" skills. My mind often wanders
to speculations of the processes - the shaped and fitted plank, the
steamed and hurriedly bent oaken rib, and perfect, waterproof seams,
all varnished reflective amber - by a brilliant and efficient
craftsman, namely me, the Master Boat-Builder. (Surely I'll need to buy
an adze and some tall boots!) But then into my dozing revery barges the
truth of my limitations, escorted by my wonderful wife who likes her
reality served cold, and her escapisms tainted with practicality,(Yes,
I probably owe her a great deal.) and an old wooden boat romancing me
from a cow pasture toward untold adventure and unprecedented self
congratulation suddenly morphs into an horrific pain-in-the-ass,
rotting eyesore embarrassment that I can't look at anymore so I avoid
the back yard and the neighbours have used as a catalist with which to
lower their opinion about my judgement and my kids are all grown and
moved away by now anyway and are waterskiing behind a nicer boat that
they like to point out has never been weed-eaten around - ever...(sigh)
....and that is my real dilemma

if you want to work on boats you can do that with any boat, they all need
work. skills can be learned while doing and there is the modern invention
of epoxy that will do a fine job of covering the mistakes, ok, perhaps with
a bit of paint too. The boat you mention could be a fabulous learning
experience in renovation--- from the keel up. As a part time project you
could easily work on it for the remainder of your life until dementia sets
in (some would say that considering an old wooden boat meets all the
criteria for that anyway) and as others have said all of your available
excess funds, non excess funds, and funds you don't yet have will go into
the boat. You would come away from the project with untold skills, creative
cursing would not be the least of them, and then, except for the above
mentioned dementia, you would be qualified to do boat renovation for a
living and let someone else rid themselves of their excess funds.

If you check sites like www.yachtworld.com you will find many boats that are
inexpensive and perhaps need to be repowered or need extensive cosmetic
work. These boats are still projects and you will still learn skills with
them. The best part is that these boats are projects that you don't have to
kill yourself or your pocket book (at least in the short term, as all boats
will kill it in the long term) to make them fit into your fantasy. And with
tlc you may find that you will get the self congratulations that you seek
just as much and you will have a boat in the water.

Good luck in your search for a boat to love. They are out there to be had
but remember that any boat you can see the rot will have at least twice as
much that you can't see but will find once you start work. Any boat with a
hogged backbone will need most everything from the keel to the deck replaced
and very likely the deck and above will also have problems needing replaced.
And finally, reality and boats do not belong in the same sentence (ok so I
broke that rule, you know what I mean). When you find the boat for you it
is likely that you will forget all of what has been said, you won't find
someone to look it over for you or have it surveyed, and you will just go
for it because it has its own water ski.

Brian