Hi Ed;

I was instructed to sand and wash after every coat because of the blushing that occurs with the particular epoxy I am using. Many brands do not require this step. You would probably find it easier to recoat within the time given by the mfr for your epoxy system without sanding between coats.

* Begin Opinion * ------------------------------------------

That said, my preference would still remain to sand between coats regardless of the epoxy system employed. It seems far easier to control the surface fairness of the relatively thick epoxy coats as opposed to one large removal at the end.

Lacquer applications are very similar to recoating green epoxy. Lacquer will always redissolve in its own solvent, and will always attain a chemical bond with the previous layer, just like green epoxy recoats. Have you ever heard of anyone putting on 10, 12, or 15 coats of lacquer without sanding between coats or groups of coats? Well, maybe, but the end result looked pretty rough, one might even say it's a waste of good lacquer. While you'll probably only apply 2 or 3 fill coats of epoxy, they are many times thicker than a coat of lacquer. All the more reason to keep it fair as you progress.

It can be argued that it is a waste of time to try to put a showroom finish on a working kayak - I would say that since we spend 1-4 months meticulously building these critters, a few days extra spent making them look as good as we can is time well spent.

* End Opinion * ---------------------------------------------

Great luck building, Best Regards, Spidey