: Just put my last coat of varnish on early this a.m. and I'm wondering how
: long I need to let it sit in the workshop before getting it wet. Our
: current weather is "hot" - about 100F mid afternoons and I'm
: wondering if this would be a "risk" factor. I've many many hours
: into this project and while we'd like to be out this week-end I don't
: particularly want to risk causing damage to the finish by pushing the time
: envelope. thanks..ian

Don't worry.

Once you put the boat in the water and use it you will start to acquire "experience marks" in the finish. Some may call these marks "scratches", "dings" and "dents", but I choose to group them under a more poetic title. Or at least that's what I call them ehen people ask why the finish on my boat is not perfect, like the finish on the furniture in my living room.

That's MY story, and I'm sticking with it.

Generally, the longer varnish cures the harder it gets, and the more resistance it has to damage. You'll see this mostly in the first month or two after you apply the varnish. Beyond that any further hardening becomes a VERY slow process, with the material becoming brittle after anywhere from 3 years to maybe 100 years, depending on storage conditions.

Old oil paintings readily show this effect. These paintings were frequently portected by a layer of varnish, and then hung on display in rooms that were heated by sooty wood fires, and lit by sooty candles. After a while the painting darkened under a layer of soot. When someone came to clean off the soot and reveal the underlying bright colors, they would wipe off the layer of soot, except that they had a hard time getting out the soot that remained in the cracks in the varnish. The resulting patina gave many old paintings a "crackled" finish appearance.

You'll avoid this effect by lightly sanding and re-varnishing your boat every few years. That will also remove some of the "experience marks", too.

PGJ