: MAS epoxy and Epifanes varnish.

Glen's "# days" may be optimistic. I wouldn't worry about the first coat for a couple of weeks.

Unless you are giving the boat away as a present there is no hurry to get the varnish on. Give the first coat of varnish time to harden properly then you can rough it up a little (just a little--that's why they suggest 220 grit sandpaper--which I think is excessively fine for this job) before you put on the second coat, which will harden much faster.

I think 150 grit will work fine if used lightly to jsut scratch the finish a bit. If you have high areas from runs and drips, use a scraper or a coarser grit sandpaper to get rid of them. Then work up through progressively finer grits to your 150 or 220 grit.

Go paddle the boat for a while. If you get dings and scratches you can reinforce the areas which show the most wear with an extra coat of epoxy resin or even some patches of glass and resin. it is easier to do this before you apply the varnish because then you don't have to sand through the varnish to get the epoxy to adhere to the base of epoxy.

Cover the boat with a tarp, or put it inside, while you are not paddling it and after a few weeks you can clean it up and varnish it. since you already have a coat of varnish on it, you have a lot of UV protection in place.

PGJ