And is there nothing other than varnish or paint to
: provide uv protection? Polyurethanes are cheaper but sound not as user
: friendly overall. Spreadable, cheap, silicon rubber would be nice. Wood
: looks nice and all but...

There is a marine coating made by the Coelan company from Germany. In North America it's distributed by Premapro. It's flexible, at 310% when cured. They use it for woodwork, but it is also intended to be used on flexible fabrics like rubber dinghies. It's not recommended for use below the water line because it's microporous (like Gore-Tex), but that only means you can't leave your boat in the water all of the time. It can be tinted/made opaque. Skin boat builders in Eurpoe have been using it for a while with very good results, and I'll use it on my next skin boat. The US distributors are great- they sent me a sample pack, and I put some on greyboard stock and put it in the freezer for a few days, and it remained flexible when I bent it over 180*- and the stock cracked on either side of the blob of finish. It's pricey, especially compared to hardware store varnish, but it's about the same as Epifanes 2-part and cheaper than automotive clearcoat, and I hear second-hand it goes on well with a roller or brush, but I haven't tried it on a large enough area yet. If you go to the Coelan web site there is a full spec sheet and links to reviews by outside testers.

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