if you can work with balsa and ply then boats are not to expensive,ive just finished the wood work on my first hydro of any decent size[its only 23"]it cost less then 35$ to build and looks like a hull that would sell for 150$.but you are right it seem like rich people ruin the fun of racing in just about every form of racing its really hard for any independantly funded racer to do well, i plan on running a brushless motor set-up and that will cost me but no more then setting up a 1/10 rc car and i think it will only be expensive if my boat sinks with the motor in it and i cant retreive it.i dont have anyone to run my boat with either i live near baltimore MD so its all just for fun and if it cost more than rc cars i wouldnt do it