: Hi Roger,
: Firstly, don't put anything on the kayak before you
: varnish/clearcoat it. That makes for more work in prepping for
: coating, even if it doesn't turn out to be a 'permanent'
: problem.

: You can use the kayak for the summer with just epoxy as the surface
: finish. I would do the finish coat to where I'd finish for
: varnishing, and do one more coat of epoxy as a sacrificial
: finish. At the end of the season, wash and sand the surface for
: varnishing as you'd do normally.
: From what I've seen, epoxy UV degrades from the surface in and
: takes a good while to break down, months at least before it
: starts to get problematic. Years before it breaks down fully. I
: had a glass/epoxy fishing rod that got left out in the sun a lot
: over twenty years and it was still fine until it got burned (by
: accident).

: Mike Savage
: South West Cork

Downside of doing it this way is you'd have to pick to either not rig the boat, which has safety issues, or you'd have to remove the rigging again to varnish it. I'd take the time to varnish it in the first place, rigging isn't "that" much fun :)

Bill H.