Glen-L.com

About to finish the caprails ( easier to do without superstructure in place) and wondering what the consensus is on my two options. I will be sealing and staining the meranti first ( done) and was wondering whether to epoxy then varnish...assuming the epoxy would make it more durable,or just lay the varnish to them? Opinions please.
Thanks: Doug

if it was me id go ahead and put a couple coats of epoxy on before the varnish

I'm with Red. I would put on a couple of coats of epoxy first.

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Ches

If you will be lax on maintenance like me ,it may be better to not epoxy first,just use varnish.

If you keep up your varnish coats the epoxy will be fine,however,if you neglect to re-coat when needed,or let nicks and scuffs go un-noticed and treated, the epoxy will get cloudy and you'll have to strip it off.

I'm sure it's easier to strip varnish than epoxy.

I screwed up on my last build, so this boat (the skiff) I just used varnish as I've not changed my habits!!!

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

If you are building a boat to use or more than on holiday weekends the entire year too, forget about the epoxy buildup. I consider building up with epoxy like those evenings when I use to visit a bar and see one of the prettiest wimmin sitting lonely at the end of the bar at midnight and invited her for one last drink at the apartment. When the pretty had some time to wear off I had to deal with getting her back to her car in the daylight especially without anyone else seeing her with me. That was a tough job.

Good comparison Oyster!!!LOL....Coyote ugly!!!

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Upspirate; You have hit one of my concerns right on the head. I was afraid that a knock on the epoxy that did do some damage would be almost impossible to repair. That's why I was leaning to varnish only. On my saiboat it waws just a matter of sanding and touching up...no big deal. It was even done on the water in the Abacos.
Doug

Exactly,this can be answered correctly either way, just have to determine pros& cons,usage, and personal habits

_________________
Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream