I applied my 5th and what I hoped would be my final coat of Interlux Schooner 96 to the deck of my Shearwater Sport. I’m in Florida and it’s been really hot. I was trying to work fast to keep a wet edge. But I guess I worked a little too fast. After I was done I saw a small run, about 1.5 in, where the port shear panel is closest to the coaming. I passes the 3 ft test, but not the 1 ft test and I know it’s gonna bug me. So wondering can I just sand down the run and feather in another coat of varnish on either side, or am I stuck with sanding and varnishing the whole shear panel, or worse yet, the whole deck?
Sand down the run and feather in. It will be fine. It will get closer to the 6 inches to see, if it is done with skill.
Keep the coat very thin…almost a dry foam brush.
Alternately, you can just varnish a single panel…the bend between panels is a good hiding place and almost impossible to detect.
Relax, don’t worry. Have a homebrew…
Oops, different hobby.
Seriously though, my experience has been that I’ll do 5 coats on a new boat and, even if it’s not perfect, I take it out, paddle it and scratch it. I find that it takes time (months) for Schooner to really get rock hard. The following winter I’ll remove the rigging, sand with 220 grit and give it another coat or 2. Somehow it ends up looking way better than the first go around.
Dan has sage advice.
Fwiw…every boat in my portfolio has a within-three-foot-blemish if you look at in the right light and angle…so i stopped trying many moons ago for the perfect finish.
I thought micro brews were part of the sport?!
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Thank you both, Howard and Dan. Will give patching the run a shot and try not to obsess about it too much (unless it’s really hideous, in which case I’ll redo the shear panel).