: Thought that you might like to see the latest! One coat of varnish, the hull
: gets painted.

Nicely done, Steve. I would love to be building a shop and working on kayaks when it's rainy and nasty outside. Instead, I'll be adding a wood floor and tacking up end walls onto my portable vinyl carport. Although it's not really a shop, it's better than nothing. Should work through the summer, anyway.

From seeing your pics, I can't help but wonder, why would you want to paint the hull? It looks very nice the way it is. If I could, however, help answer your question, once you finish the deck varnish, I'd give it at least a couple of days to cure before sticking tape to it. That is just a guess, since I painted the hull of my Chesapeake, before varnishing the deck. I don't think it matters, as long as the to be taped surface is cured, and you don't leave the tape on too long, making it difficult to remove. One thing that you could do is to try some of your varnish on a test board and see what the tape does to it after a day or two, also try your paint on scraps to make sure it's a go (see if it sneaks under the tape too).

Have you had a chance to drop it in the water yet?
SMF