In one sense, you're 25 years too late. In the 70's - early 80's,
Costa Mesa / Newport Beach was a bee hive of 'plastic classic' boat
building activity. One could buy 'bare hull' kits of some very
legitimate, sea-worthy designs from area factories and finish off the
project at home, returning to the factory for parts and / or advice as
needed. A book that documents one person's project (a Westsail 32) -
and a fine book to have for any boat-builders shelf - is 'From a Bare
Hull' by Ferenc Mate. There are still a couple of world-class sail boat
builders in Orange County - Pacific Seacraft and Samuel L. Morse.
Perhaps they offer pre-arranged tours (if, for nothing else, so you can
see what an enormous ammount of work building a 38' boat is... ).

Mike Worrall
Los Angeles