Varnish vs paint inside hull, spars, & centerboard

[varuna]

Hi all,

I am stitching together the hull panels and am trying to plan ahead on whether I will paint or varnish the entire boat. I would like to give it a nice wooden finish to my boat and have a few questions:
-Has anyone varnished the entire boat? How has that experience been in the durability/maintenance?
-In the manual they use primer inside of the bulkheads, etc once everything is fiberglassed - has anyone used varnish instead of paint?
-Will varnish make the boat more prone to water issues?

I also am working on the spars and am almost ready to varnish them.
-Did anyone coat the spars in epoxy prior to varnishing them for waterproofing?

Also, did anyone paint or varnish their centerboard after they finished fiberglassing it?

Thanks,

[Dan_keller]

Donna,

I plan to keep some of the topside varnished instead of painted. The okoume wood is too beautiful not to do that. The cabin, too, I hope to keep varnished mostly...it likely will cause some extra maintained, but if you put several coats of varnish on and research the best type of varnish, you should be ok...

Dan.

[riverron]

Also, did anyone paint or varnish their centerboard after they finished fiberglassing it?

The manual states that it is not required, but I have seen others putting graphite on it to make it more slick. I have not fiberglassed mine yet and I am considering using the graphite. Since I already purchased it and it only involves adding it to the final epoxy coat, I probably will use it.

[varuna]

Hi Ron, I spoke to Jon from CLC about this and said graphite wasn't necessary and recommended using it only on the leading and trailing edges of the centerboard, which I did. You can see it on my blog:
http://varuna.us/filling-in-the-leading ... nterboard/

Was a messy affair, but now that I finished the faring of the leading and trailing edges, it looks cool.

[riverron]

Thanks Donna. Since I already did the leading and trailing edges with epoxy, I will just save if for another project.

thanks
Ron

[varuna]

Donna,
if you put several coats of varnish on and research the best type of varnish, you should be ok...
Dan.

Hi Dan, which varnish did you find to be the best?

[ddemasie]

When I finished my spars,I wanted the waterproofing (and maybe added strength) that the epoxy brings. I prepped them by sanding down to 220 by hand - then added 3 thin coats of epoxy, (I hand sanded with 220 between coats)

After that, I applied another 3 coats of marine varnish. With the varnish, between coats, all I did was quickly run over the surface with a fine steel wool (00), and only used sandpaper where I had put it on too thick and had it 'run'.

I read a building blog somewhere recommending 8 to 10 coats of varnish on wood, but I think 3 thin coats of epoxy and 3 of varnish was plenty.

The good thing is that a thin coat of varnish or epoxy on the spars only takes about 30 minutes total. Took me over a week of elapsed time, but maybe 3 or 4 hours of actual working time.

[JonLee]

Yes, coat the spars in epoxy. Definitely. Yes.

At least three coats of varnish. Five is better. Ten is more better. Varnishing every day for the rest of your life, definitely the best.

[Dan_keller]

I have used petit flagship and epiphanes. Flagship held up better. I have been recommended le tonkonois varnish...which I'll try on pocketship okoume.

Any other varnish product suggestions?