Congratulations.

Sounds like you are at the same point where I was with my Patuxent a few weeks ago.

A word of warning: The sanding and varnishing will take much longer than you think. When you do the final sanding prior to varnishing, you want to get the boat as smooth as possible. In doing this, sanding through the epoxy and exposing bare wood in some areas - like corners and edges - is almost unavoidable. So, you must re-epoxy those areas again. It only takes a few minutes to apply, but it seems to take forever to dry. After allowing it to cure fully, you sand it again. And again, you end up with a bare wood spot - smaller than the previous one. So you mix up epoxy...

So, if you get the chance to paddle the boat before you get into that sand-epoxy cycle, do it. Maybe your experience won't be as bad as mine. After all, my problems didn't really start until I installed the rubrails - a mistake I will never make again.

But the sanding prior to varnishing will have the greatest impact on the quality of the finish of your boat - so don't rush it.