RE: new to boats
For your first boat start with electric power.Nitro is a pain when it decides to die in the middle of a pond. Wood boats come in all sorts of styles from tankers to row boats. If you are into scratch building, Svensens free model boat plans is cheap and for the most part easy to build plans. Search the net and you can get all sorts of help maybe advertise on RC Universe that you are looking for a kit.