This is a fascinating project. I haven't seen the kit, but I'm confident that it's a fine one.
For the benefit of anybody who's not familiar with the subject, it may be useful to clarify just what this kit is. It's a model of a model. The "Mataro Ship" is the oldest known European ship or boat model. As Millard noted, it was found in an old church in the town of Mataro, Spain, and has been dated to the mid-15th century. Just how it wound up in the maritime museum at Rotterdam I'm not sure. (I got a brief look at it it on a trip to Holland many years ago.) It is not, and was never intended to be, a scale model of an actual ship; the concept of scale modeling didn't really exist yet (and neither did scale ship plans). It's presumed to be a "votive model" - an offering prepared by some sailor or passenger to give thanks for something associated with a sea voyage. The proportions obviously are distorted a long way from reality, and the workmanship is extremely crude. (If I remember right, at least one of the spars is a twig with the bark still on it.) It looks as though Imai reproduced the proportions of the original. (Heller didn't. Its "Mataro" is based on one of its other hulls.)
The outcome from this kit is a reproduction of an historical artifact. An artifact of enormous importance. Virtually every scholar who's tried to reconstruct Columbus's ships has studied it intensively. And I agree with the bride and groom: it would be a really classy home ornament.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.