I built my pocketship from just the plans and sourced out all the materials locally. Transferring the patterns and cutting the plywood took about an additional 100 hours as compared to using the kit. I had absolutely no prior boat building experience and concur with Jeff that the excellent plans make this build doable by the average home handyman. The biggest challenge for me was working with the fiberglass and epoxy but this forum, the CLC forum, and the manual offer lots of tips on fillets etc.
If you check on the CLC website
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/wooden-sailboat-kits/pocketship-sailing-pocket-cruiser-kit.html they sell the manual for $30 which can be applied to the purchase of the kit or full plans later. The detailed manual with all of its photos will give you a really good idea if this is a project you wish to tackle.
My pocketship took approximately 800 hours to complete over the the course of about 8 months and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it (well, except for the occasional setback which is inevitably part of a novice boatbuilding experience).
All the details from start to finish are on my blog.