Tony, here's my opinion, take it for what it's worth. I've built 3 boats and have another one in the works. Unless you have a lot of experience in a number of different hull configurations - stick to a design from a proven company. Devlin, Glen-L, CLC, etc. all have been at this a long time. Any weeding out of bad hull designs is done way before we ever see the plans.
Worse case is you design your hull and find out after you have spent $2-3K on it that it is not at all what you expected and in fact may not even be safe.
Sure $1000 in epoxy seems like a lot but you are going to have that magnitude no matter what design you go with including your own IF you build with proven techniques. I started my BB3 in 2002 and when it was all said and done my build bill was right around $2500. Quality wood is not cheap nor is quality epoxy though there are a couple that offer the same quality for less money such as US Composites or RAKA.
Take another look at proven designs and their reviews, ride in a couple if you can so you get a feel for things like hard/soft chines, rocker, planing vs displacement hulls.
As one example look at the difference between a BB2 and a BB3. sitting on the water they look almost identical. Under power they are totally different boats where the BB3 will get up on plane with a snap of your fingers, the BB2 never will but will handle bigger, nasty water much better.
Lots to think about before you start a boat, just trying to pointed in the right direction.
