In my opinion all the basic framing should be of the same wood and use different woods for the accessories. Look at the other build logs for ideas for the shot locker, pumps etc.
I think white oak would be a good choice, red oak would not give you much color contrast with the cherry, another option would be Beachwood it has a closer grain than oak.
The two strakes closest to the keel are 1’-2” with 2” notches for the limber boards, the other strakes are 1’-0” wide. See Part 3 Hold Plan & Cross Section.
so my thanks go to Donnie who unwittingly helped me with the limber boards, i thought 3 was the magic number but apparently its 17.5 . this took quite a long time to work out how to cut , but with Donnies ideas and angles i managed to get it ,
its not glued down yet but it fits quite well , also i like the way docblake has his limber boards setup and might copy that if its ok , anyways here's where i am today
this small piece was remarkably awkward to get right , its about 85% right , i still think it looks ok though and will be mostly covered by the shot locker if i'm not mistaken
A work-around is to eliminate the square tenon at the foot of the mast. That way, you can simply drill a hole in the mast step that fits the mast diameter. No square mortise and tenon needed! Appearance is the same.
Fitting to a complex surface can be difficult. Start off close but oversized and work carefully and slowly. Sometimes a contour tool like this can help: