Varnishing Deck

The whole deck, cowling and hatch had two coats of epoxy applied and were then sprayed with a single pack varnish from International called Goldspar (gloss) for exterior use. This was not without it’s problems though…

When the initial coat of varnish was applied the surface went all funny – later found out it is called fish eyeing. After many tests with different brands of varnish the problem was eventually tracked down to the timber in the deck.

Here are some pictures of the fish eyes.

And the same from another view. Not an acceptable surface.

I then proceeded to remove all varnish and all epoxy from the deck. This took some time as you can imagine! The deck, hatch and coaming were then scrubbed with a household cleaner and a Scotchbrite pad and lots of water. After drying the deck was epoxied again and then sanded (again) and finally five coats of varnish went on and gave a pretty good finish. It’s not perfect but after all the sanding and re-epoxying I had had enough!

Here is what it ended up looking like.

Here is the interior. It still needs to have the side panels made and covered.

Here is the proud owner testing the seating position.