To anyone who has looked into buying the perfect boat, it's no secret that the more research you do, the more confused you can become. New, used; yacht, trawler, houseboat, cruiser, outboard, sailboat; wood, aluminum, fiberglass; full displacement, semi-displacement, chine, dead rise, entry angle; length, width, draft; single prop, twin prop, gas, diesel, horsepower, rpm; fuel, capacity, cruising speed, cruising range; and on and on and on. There are variables upon variables, each with good points and bad points, strengths, weaknesses and tradeoffs. Don'' forget price!

For every person you ask, there's a different opinion, too – at least as many as there are boats. There's no end to the number of experiences that boaters have had with this boat or that boat.

Key in "boats for sale" on the Internet. Presto, you have 1,812,400 Web sites at your fingertips, all brimming with enough data and visuals to reduce the most single-minded researcher into a hopelessly lost soul afraid to look one source further. Boat shows can be equally mind-boggling to someone with no clear picture of what he wants. One of each would be nice.

When the critical mass of information threatens overload, something has to be done. It is time for action. Out of chaos comes order. And so it was that I reached the decision to try to build a boat (The chaos I can vouch for, the order remains to be seen!).

About this time, lifelong boater Kilburn Adams of St. Louis sent us a query regarding an article about a boat he designed. Intrigued, we accepted an invitation for an afternoon aboard SkiffAmerica 20, his perfect boat.

What a boat it is (see "Boat Review," page 44 for full description). Krista Grueninger, assistant editor, and I met Adams at Alton Marina where we launched his SkiffAmerica into the Mississippi River and cruised around. This would be a great boat for touring stretches of the river, to call on marinas and visit other boaters. It is seaworthy, fuel efficient, easy to maintain and trailerable. At full throttle, about 25 mph, we had no trouble making a tight turn. The boat tracked well and sliced smoothly through a towboat's wake.

The boat is also "buildable," which is key, although I am not the one who is actually going to put it together. I'll get to enjoy the building process and do my share of the work, but the industrial arts teacher (it's not called shop anymore) at my high school alma mater and a group of select students are taking the SkiffAmerica on as a school project. They're going to start it at the beginning of the school year, in September. When finished, hopefully by the end of the school year, they plan on entering it in an industrial arts competition, and then we're going to put it to work on the rivers and lakes of the heartland.

Each month during its construction, we'll run an article and photos describing the boat's progress, so you'll be able to follow along as it's being built.

We won't invite you to the launch, although you're more than welcome, but we will give you a full report … provided, of course, that the end result is more orderly than chaotic (translation: it floats!).