Varnishing

Here are my supplies ready to varnish. The Pettit Flagship ZSpar 2015 is very well rated and recommended. A good badger hair brush, tack cloth and a painting suit to elimate dust. (nice thought). Here is my varnish chamber in my very clean basement. Although my wife has been after me for years to clean the basement well it took needing to varnish the kayak to do it. After vacuming, dusting, vacuming the ceiling, mopping the floor, vacuming every area air flow will come from I still created plastic chamber over the kayak and along some of the walls to elimate dust. I sponged, wiped, tacked clothed and read up all I could on varnishing. Its clear to me now that its a challenging process. The varnishing itself only took about 15 minutes for the deck and 24 hours later another 15 for the hull but getting it on without drips or runs is the challenge.
Below is a paddle park that I decided I really wanted although I was reluctant to drill two holes in the side to hold the paddle-park bungie. I copied this design from John Caldeira who has a very helpful kayak building blog among other things. John has also been very helping in resonding to my many questions. Thanks John. I've sealed them on the inside and will make them very waterproof. I know I will want it once on the water. After all, I still have to drill holes anyway for the soft-padeyes that will hold the deck bungies.

The first coat of the varnish went very well overall. I thought I had gotten all the runs, drips, "holidays" (missed spots) but learned after it dried that I didn't . This leads to alot of 220 wet sanding that I hope to avoid in future coats. The key is to get the varnish on thin..... I've reread some techniques on Chesepeck Light Craft, They have many helpful boatbuilding techniques.

After the first coat I wet sanded the entire hull and deck with 220 grit wrapped over an x-fine sanding sponge which I also used sometimes. After wiping everything again and using the tack cloth I did the second coat. I did much better with only one medium run/drip spot but got much more dust this time. Go figue....This will sand out in the next sanding where I will wet sand with 320 grit. Here is the 2nd coat of the deck and cockpit. Tonight I will turn it over, prepare the hull and varnish it in the morning.

Ventalation: I have been venting the basement with two exhaust fans drawing from an open window and the 1st floor living space. This has kept virtually all funes out of the house very well. I do keep the one fan running for about 8 hours as the varnish sets, although I think most fumes are released in the first hour.