Hi Don, I varnished my first boat this summer so I am no expert.

However what I found was that it is one of the most time consuming things I had to do in building my s&g boat. I put on 5 coats and you have to wait for each coat to dry enough to sand and put on the next coat.

I was able to save some time by varnishing both the hull and the deck in the same coat. This cut the time in half and made sure that there was no line.

The only way I could come up with to do this was to hang the boat up in such a way that I could flip it over when one side was done. I did this by placing a 24 inch steel dowel through the hole at each end of the boat with a rope attached to each end of the dowel. I strung the boat from the ceiling by these dowels which provides a fairly stable "trapize" of sorts. after varnishing the hull, then I could get an assistant and grab each of the dowels (so you do not have to touch the boat) and flip the boat over to hang upright and varnish the deck. Let it dry overnight and you are ready to sand and put on another entire boat coat.

Good luck.

Mike
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I am getting to the final epoxy fill coats on my stripper and I am thinking
: about how to go about the varnishing. As I get a coat of varnish on the
: hull , do I let this dry and then varnish the deck? What about the line
: where the wet coat meets the already dry one? Will this be noticable in
: the end? Any tips or ideas appreceated.
: Great board! Lots of good ideas. I really enjoy the pics of everyones
: projects.

: Cheers Don