: 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

Hi Paul,

Have to disagree, a single coat of varnish will have very little UV resistance, takes several coats to build up a film thick enough to do this. Works two ways, the UV resisting chemicals and reflectivity, surface has to be completely smooth to be reflective, a single coat rarely will do this.

This is also why varnish needs renewing, the UV gradually reduces the film thickness and degrades the surface reflectivity.

Bill H.