I've read lots of posts on finishing over the last 6 months on this list. Now that I'm at that stage I have some questions.

1. I sanded my deck and hull with 80 grit. Recoated with epoxy and have now sanded with 120 then 220 grit. When I wet the surface I can still see a lot of small swirls (from the 120 grit on the ROM I presume). Do these swirls need to be completely gone prior to varnishing? What about for painting? (Is paint thicker, therefore able to fill small cracks).

2. When varnishing/painting - should I let the material dry then sand prior to the next coat, or can I recoat while still tacky and then just sand prior to the finish coat.

3. How many coats of paint or varnish? (Plus, am I in big trouble if I don't have a dust free space to work?)

4. (Here's the challenging one). I'm going to paint part of the hull for abrasion resistance (Interlux Brightsides), the deck and part of the side panels are going to be varnished. (Plus I'll need to do a paint strip across the deck to cover a damaged area). The question - how careful do I need to be in my varnish/paint overlap? Can I paint first and then varnish over that or visa versa? Given I need to sand between coats of varnish and paint it would be a real pain to maintain a masking tape edge.

Thanks for the help.

Mark