: Varnish the bottom first then use your experience to spend the time
: varnishing the deck to make it look nice.

Thanks for the good advice Dave. I choose to go ahead and commit to the varnishing process over the entire boat(s). When not playing the part of a boat-builder, I practice Landscape Architecture. Spring finally broke on Monday here in central Indiana, and my phone hasn't stopped vibrating. My boat making time evaporated a lot faster than (I believe) those swirls were going to.

For what it's worth, Rob was dead on about the swirls showing through the varnish. Damned pro's, why have they always gotta be right? Gonna try to squeeze in getting my fourth coats on today. Been wet sanding w/ 220 in between. The texture of the swirls does seem to diminish with each coat, but doubt they're going to disappear. Take two steps back, and it does glow and look like glass. Shooting for six coats before rigging the pad-keys & ropes.

Started with a qt. of Pettit Flagship. This got me exactly two coats on both boats. Not wishing to pop another $100 on varnish to finish, picked up a gallon of 'Cabot's spar varnish' for $30 at one of the big-boxes. Used it as the third coat, and it seems to have cured well over the Pettit. At 1/6th the cost of the Pettit, guessing the overall quality and lifespan is not the same. We'll see?

I've enough imperfections on this, my first run, that I won't sweat the swirls. These boats already have a busy schedule lined up for the season. I do hope they float? Hopefully next time around I won't have the (or at least as many) imperfections and I won't be in such a hurry that I can devote more time to nailing the finish.

Todd