For some time now I have been batting around the idea of painting my rails and spacered inwales. Varnish looks nice, but I know I don’t want the bother of maintaining it and if I use the boat as I hope to, it will certainly get banged up anyway. On the other hand, I went to all the extra trouble and expense of installing spacered inwales. Maybe they should be finished bright for my effort. On the other, other hand, I think a three-color paint job looks very nice on a boat and I really like the colors I have chosen (Ivory, Sapphire Blue, Sundown Buff). I also don’t relish the thought of varnishing spacered inwales and I think painting them will be slightly easier though I haven’t any experience with either.
Not too many boats with painted spacered inwales to look at for reference, although I have seen a few and they look nice. I know the ultimate answer is its my boat and I can do whatever I want but if you have an opinion let me know.
What I did with my Northeaster dory was start with spar varnish. That way if I want to stay bright I can because the wood is sealed clear. If they get banged up and I want to go painted I can, no problem. The reverse — going from painted to clear is harder if color pigment gets into the wood grain. For me it was all about preserving options. Of course the epoxy provides much the same benefit, but this way gives me a margin of safety. The first season I had only three coats of varnish on.
In my experience the spar varnish cures faster than Brightsides one-part. Paint curing time takes a lot longer than paint drying time. This is especially true if the conditions are cold or humidity is dry. I used a homemade wiping varnish. When the brightwork gets tired I scuff it up with ultra fine steel wool, wipe it down with tack cloth, and hit it with three coats of wiping varnish. This only takes a day.
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Thanks for the input. No easy way out that’s for sure. The part I am most not looking forward to is painting/varnishing between the spacers and rail on the top plank. I guess no matter how I finish the rails and inwales, if I paint the top plank it is going to be a challenge keeping clean lines around all of the spacers. Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to varnish everything including the top plank and just have to tape off the deck which will be painted no matter what I choose for the rails and inwales. Maybe I will start with bright as mentioned and see how I like it.
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