I'm getting ready to finish my Skerry, and I'm facing the paint vs. varnish question. For appearance, my preference is for varnishing all surfaces. As you can tell from my posting history here, I am a rank beginner, and I've made lots of mistakes that will be visible through varnish. I don't care, I'm proud of my scars.
But from researching the alternatives, it appears that varnishing is more work, a LOT more work, due to all the wet-sanding between the five (!) coats. And I've got to do the interior, exterior, rudder, centerboard, spars.
So my questions:
- Is it actually the case that varnishing is a lot more work?
- For varnishing the interior: Some places are diffiicult to reach (under the middle seat) or nearly impossible (under the front and rear seats). Just ignore those?
- How do I estimate the amount of varnish I'll need?
- Lastly: any advice on fixing the low spots before I begin varnishing? I've gone through 120/220 grit sanding, applied more epoxy, more 120/220 sanding -- I can't get rid of those low spots. I've seen occasional references to various kinds of fillers. Recommendations welcome.
Thye best way to fix low spots is to use a sanding board, long board, murdur board - whatever you want to call it. Unfixable low spots are usually cause by the sandpaper following the curev and removing the filler that you just put in. A sanding board rides over the curve and averages the surface out.
If you're going to varnish, you're pretty much stuck with epoxy as your filler/fairing compound. Paint lets you use fillers that are much easier to sand, like epoxy/microballoon mix.
The other thing to keep in mind, though, is that visible woodgrain distracts the eye and make good camouflauge for a less than stellar sanding/fairing job. A well-sanded boat still looks better than a middling-sanded boat, even with varnish, but as long as there's not a well-sanded boat nearby to compare to, most people won't notice.
Putting the boat upside down on supports lets you get to seat bottoms more easily.
For a boat the size of the skerry I've been able to do just the inside with less than half a quart of varnish.
Good luck,
Laszlo
If you are a decent hand at varnishing (full disclosure: I am not), and you enjoy doing it as often as it needs to be "spruced up", and you like the looks of it, by all means, I wish you all joy of it.
I've never been fond of the look of varnished plywood, myself. A shapely boat like a Skerry looks good with her topsides in white and her interiror maybe done up in a warm tan color, non glossy to be easier on the eyes in bright sunlight. The shadows of the plank laps sort of speak for themselves.
Just my two cents. As the old sailors' adage goes: "Different ships, different long splices."
.....Michael
Thank you.
My sanding has been with a 5" random orbital sander. I would think that the surface of the sander, like a longboard, would rid over the curve, but it sure hasn't worked out that way.
Orbital sanders can be tricky. It only takes a very slight elevation from perfectly flat to let the rounded edge slip into a dip. John Harris addresses this in his shop tip about varnished kayaks and, as usual, he's absolutely right.
Laszlo
Follow-up questions:
- Can you provide a link to the John Harris info? I'm not finding it.
- I see how a longboard works for the outside of a hull. I don't see how it would work inside, because the curvature is concave. What do you do there?
First article, Sanding. See section titled The Pad Must Be Flat!
Second article, The Varnished Kayak. The source of the picture above.
Bonus - varnish/Paint quantities per boat model.
My longboard is made from leftover 3mm plywood so it's flexible enough to accommodate the curves, inside and out, on the boats I've built. It's 24 inches long so it actually bends easily, but is stiff enough to keep the curve fair even with a strip of sandpaper stuck to it.
For extreme curves. like the fillets, I saved the rollers that I used to apply epoxy, wrapped sandpaper around them after they were fully hardened, then just ran them lengthwise along the fillets. Note - the bumpy woodflour/epoxy taped fillets had a cosmetic layer of epoxy/microballoon on them for easy sanding.
Laszlo