I varnished the oak gunwales on my canoe and after a year they looked OK. After two years they looked worse than the rest of the boat. After leaving the boat out in snow and rain all winter, the wood discolored in the 3rd year. After 5 years there were areas that were rotting, and now they need to be replaced.

The piece of clear red oak I used for the gunwales set me back about $30. All the cedar for the rest of the canoe was only $45, so I lost a significant amount of my materials costs due to the advice given by the instructions -- namely, just use varnish. Maybe that is why they suggested attaching the gunwale with screws -- so it could be easily replaced.

What I have learned from this: Finish the gunwale with at least one coat of epoxy resin (preferably 2 thin coats) followed by at least one coat of UV blocking varnish. Most people can't stop with just one coat of varnish, and that is OK. You can epoxy coat the inside of the gunwale strip before attaching it to the boat, and varnish everything later.

Use screws to attach the gunwales. Removing a damaged part that is epoxied in place will be a bigger chore than unscrewing it.

Gunwales take a lot of abuse. Consider them disposable after a few years, but while you have them, they may as well be durable and pretty.
For that reason I'd suggest you put a layer or two of glass cloth over the top of the gunwales for a length of about 2 1/2 feet to either side of the oarlocks. This does not have to be very wide. It can be a tad thinner than the thickness of your gunwale. Or, if you want, you can wrap a wider strip of cloth so it sits on the top edge, and drapes over the outside edge to protect two of the most exposed surfaces on the gunwales. Two layers of 4 ounce or 6 ounce cloth will give a significant amount of protection against dropped oars and roughly handled gear, as well as protect against some dock bumping.

Since this is just a small area, drop your glass cloth on when you do the first seal coat of resin, and when you put on the second coat you can start to fill the weave of the cloth. A third coat (and 4th if needed) can be applied to just the area covered with the glass cloth, with any excess resin brushed out another foot or two past the ends of the fabric. It should be easy to fair this strip into the length of the gunwale before the varnish goes on, so you don't notice the starting edge of the cloth. Of course at the middle of the boat it will just look like an incredible, deep, varnish finish

Once you DO get some oars, epending on what kind you have, consider wrapping the areas around where they fit in the oarlocks with three layers of glass cloth and resin to reinforce them there. It will add years to the life of your oars.

Take a look at similar style of well used oars and see where the wear patterns are.

PGJ