Flat bottom skiffs are fine instructors. They are usually between 11 and 16 feet long, and can carry two or three adults. They can carry some suppiles as well and are very suitable for learning boat handling, harbor work, fishing, day sailing, and almost any job for a small boat in fairly sheltered waters. Sometimes the word skiff is used to mean almost any kind of open boat, but generally skiff means flat-bottomed. This list has flat-bottomed skiffs.
Skiffs are often fairly easy to build.
Some designs are very easy to build and some are of intermediate difficulty, serving as an introduction to traditional boat building. Listed here are first, books about skiffs, and then a list of skiff building plans, somewhat in increasing order of difficulty to build. The books can be ordered from the WoodenBoat Magazine store. No building instructions but many basic ideas. A classic book on designing, building, and using classic boats.