Have you 'tipped' the varnish after applying it? By tipping I mean lightly brushing over the just-varnished area with a dry foam brush to break those bubbles. You apply varnish to a foot or two along the length of the kayak with a soaked brush, then tip it from the fresh varnish into the previous wet edge. This should help, I hope...

Dean

: I've been practicing my varnish techniques on my hatch covers while I wait a
: couple weeks for the epoxy on the yak to cure. But after my 3rd coat I'm
: still having trouble with bubbles in the varnish. I'm putting it on with a
: foam brush (seems like a good quality foam brush). When I put it on,
: stroke in one direction and flow it on, there are quite a few tiny air
: bubbles. After a min or so most are gone but a dozen or so remain in the
: 1sqft cover. There does not seem to be any bubbles in my cup of varnish.
: Also tried thinning with 10% thinner but had same result. Any ideas?

: They sand off easily with 220 and 320 wet sanding. But I'm concerned the
: final coat will have bubbles.

: Dwight