Over the years I've varnished acres of boat brightwork,and did it all outdoors.The major impact on the result will be in the prep work .22o marks are ok in the wood or epoxy .You can varnish on any nice day and you'llk need 6 hours of dry surface(no dew) after applying varnish. I prefer a tung oil type finish-lasts as long and is easier to apply and maintain than polyurethane(also called PU)Sand with a linear sander(palm sander ) between coats,use tack cloth to clear off the dust,and DON'T apply any finish if there is a lot of pollen in the air. Five coats of varnish will be plenty,or two coats of marine topside paint.At the junction of the two,mask off the line desired.I'd paint first,as it is easier to define a line with paint.To add years of life to the finish,keep the boat covered when not in use.A trick from boat painters to get a smoother finish,add 5-10% Penetrol to the paint or varnish.It retards drying a bit and lets the paint or varnish level better.Use only with oil base paints.BTW,given the easy life kayak finishes will have,relatively,the finish should last a long time.One last thought,a painter at one of the premium yacht builders advised "apply a coat,let it dry thoroughly,sand half of it off,apply the next coat".The varnish will look 3 dimensional. Good luck

> 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