Hi there.

Not too long ago I chatted a bit with a technical advisor at Z-Spar (a subsidiary of someone else) about their Flagship varnish and spraying. He said that while the can label advises spray application thinning to only 10%, you can thin up to 30%. That does make each dried film coat thinner than undiluted, and he said to put on 5 coats if you would have brushed on 4.

On one warm day (upper 70's) I was able to recoat every 8 hours. I waited until each coat was no longer sticky, though it was still soft enough to mar easily. Recoating this soon does not require sanding first, but I wait long enough every 2nd or 3rd coat to do that to level out things and get rid of specs of anti-varnish matter.

Pete Rudie turned me on to using a tack coat, which enables you to apply a slightly thicker coat each time. Works something like this:

Once you are all set to spray, choke down the varnish volume to about 1/3 or 1/4 of the normal setting. Open the fan width wide open. Spraying the boat from about twice the normal distance away and at about twice the normal speed, quickly 'dust' the boat in just a short time, say 20 seconds.

Leave the room, take a 15 minute break.

Come back, restore the gun settings to normal, and spray away. I think it works, though it does tend to let me get overconfident, so, yes, you can still get the runs if you don't watch it.

In any event, what Nick said goes as well. Most of the manufactors have 1-800 numbers which, with a little patience, can usually connect you with a real, live human.