Cruiser Tips

Running the bar •  Diesel Maintenance •  Lock your dinghy!! •  Lightning •  Varnishing in the Tropics

CASEY BROOKS

All about fiberglass blisters

Back when you were in high school you didn’t pay attention in chemistry class.

You used to hum the song:  “Don’t know much about his-tory, don’t know much about bi-ology,” while trying to stay awake.

You spent most of your time scheming on how to get the little red-headed girl to be your lab partner.

Osmosis was already around back then, but God hadn’t applied it to fiberglass boats yet. You see, God is a wooden boat guy; always has been, going back to Noah’s Ark days.

Sometime in the seventies, when fiberglass boats were becoming common and yacht brokers (ex-used car salesmen in white pants and deck shoes) kept bad-mouthing wooden boats: 

“Yeah, they’re full of worms … dry rot like you wouldn’t believe … now this here Albino Plastico 42 that I want to show you,  blah blah blah.”

Well, God got tired of hearing all this and brought forth upon the land (water) a plague and cursed fiberglass boats with BLISTERS.

  Okay,  Chemistry 101:  here is what osmosis blistering is:  A lesser concentrated liquid passes through a semi-permeable membrane to join up with a more concentrated liquid.

“Wait!” you say.  Shouldn’t the more concentrated liquid pass to the less concentrated liquid side?   NO.   I know  this sounds like “Weird Science”  but  the way it works  is just opposite to what you would logically conclude.

 You might have a water maker on your boat. The water maker’s high-pressure pump forces the more concentrated liquid (seawater) through a semi-permeable membrane, leaving the less concentrated liquid (freshwater).

They call this “reverse osmosis.”  This does not naturally happen -- a PUMP makes it happen. I think this is all fairly accurate - but hey......“I don’t know much about chem-istry, …. don’t know much bi-ology, don’t know much about science books, don’t remember the French I took”

This osmosis thing happens on a molecular level throughout the human body. For example, skin is a semi-permeable membrane. Gel coat is the semi-permeable skin on the outside of a fiberglass boat.

Gel coat is not waterproof like originally thought.

Boat blisters occur when seawater molecules pass through the gel coat into pockets of more concentrated liquid trapped in the laminate under the gel coat. Then the seawater reacts with chemicals in the fiberglass to create corrosive liquids such as acetic acid and glycol.

These chemicals have a greater molecular size than water and cannot escape back through the gel coat.  So, a pimple or blister forms. To use the skin analogy – one has to squeeze or lance a pimple or blister to open it up and get rid of the bad stuff. 

So what to do about these damn fiberglass blisters?

The easy thing to do, and I highly recommend it is:  IGNORE THEM, especially if you are over 60 years old and the boat is worth less than… say $70,000.

But what about resale value?  Well, your average mono hull cruising boat has lost 30-50% of its value since the mortgage meltdown, and there is a worldwide glut of older boats on the market.

Spending $8,000-15,000 on a well done blister job will have little effect on how much you get for your boat. Keep it….(I say) …stop worrying about it, and go sailing once in awhile.    

Now, for those of you who have a more valuable boat but it has the dreaded “blisters” and you want to fix them, there are two strategies.

Strategy One:   Do an “Inexpensive Blister Job.”

This entails hauling the boat and immediately opening up the blisters using a knife, chisel, or small grinder like a Dremel tool.   Don’t get all carried away using a disc grinder.

Now I’m talking about your garden variety blisters here: quarter inch to one inch in diameter.  If your hull looks like the craters on the moon, take two aspirin and call me in the morning. 

Once you have opened all the blisters and hosed them well with freshwater, brush acetone into each crater and dry with a heat gun. Do this about a dozen times or for the rest of the day.  Brush on acetone, dry with heat gun.

Let the hull dry out:  a week is good,  a month is better. Make sure the bilges are completely dry. Use fans or a dehumidifier inside the boat.  The inner fiberglass skin is porous also. 

Think DRY and CLEAN during this whole process. When your craters are dry, paint each one with two coats of epoxy resin. While still tacky, fill the craters with thickened epoxy using a flexible putty knife.

Use West System or other quality epoxy with the appropriate fillers. All of the major epoxy and paint companies have instruction guides on how to do this.

The next day when the epoxy repairs are dry, sand them smooth and flush with the rest of the hull. Wipe them with acetone and paint them again with two coats of unfilled epoxy resin to seal the more porous thickened epoxy.

Then spot paint with anti-fouling bottom paint. A barrier coat is not needed here - the epoxy acts as a barrier coat. Then apply two coats of the same bottom paint to the entire bottom.

Strategy Two:  The “Expensive Blister Job. “ 

Take the boat to a yard that really knows what they are doing, and be there to watch the repair job. Bring a lawn chair, umbrella and cooler and set up right there, front and center. 

If you can’t be there, hire a marine surveyor to make sure they do it right. Have the boat’s bottom “peeled” using a mechanical peeler. This is superior to grinding or sandblasting. The boat is peeled uniformly and sufficiently deep to remove all the deteriorating ‘glass.

The new fiberglass is laminated on using “Vinylester” resin, not regular polyester resin and not epoxy resin. When the ‘glass has been built back up then one switches to epoxy resin – rolling on four to six coats. Use West System or Interprotect Epoxy Barrier Coat. Finish up with an epoxy-based bottom paint like Trinidad.

Here in the warm freshwater of the Rio Dulce we have ideal conditions for osmotic blistering to develop.

If you have a fairly recently built production fiberglass boat maybe it was built using Vinylester resin. Many of these boats come with a 5-10 year warranty against blisters.

If your boat, however, is conventionally built using polyester resin and the (we now know for sure) semi-permeable NOT WATERPROOF gel coat, and the boat is not very old, and the boat is worth say over $100,000, then stripping the bottom paint and applying five coats of epoxy barrier coat might be a good idea.

“Don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about science books, don’t remember the French I took. But I do know that I love you, and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world this would be.”  -Sam Cooke, 1960

Diesel maintenance for cruising sailors

 I sailed "Retriever" for five years without an engine. We sailed all over Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands and up into Canada, drifting or anchoring when there was no wind, rowing at times with a pair of sixteen foot lifeboat oars, playing the currents, sailing in zephyrs with a huge, old two-ounce drifter. It was a challenge and it was fun.

We used to sail in and out of the marina in Port Townsend for Wednesday evening and Saturday racing. Everyone was nice, as they nervously rigged fenders when they saw us coming. I sailed down to San Francisco and under the Golden Gate Bridge because I always wanted to do it, and then sailed right back out - too cold and too expensive.

I sailed up and down the coast of Mexico. I wasn't shy about accepting a tow; it's a great way to meet people. Finally, becalmed in the Gulf of Panama for three days and nights, surrounded by ships heading for the Canal, and rolling from rail to rail, I vowed to get an engine. 
 
Several years later, after many more engineless adventures, I was working in American Samoa and ordered a brand new three-cylinder Yanmar. I built the engine beds, drip pan, and engine room enclosure. Then I drilled the hole for the shaft tube about 80% of the way through from the inside. We hoisted the engine aboard and, there being no haulout in Pago Pago, I sailed to Fiji to complete the instillation. That was in 1986, and the "Old Yammering" is still going, although it is well overdue for an overhaul.

I really like my engine. It has been hard working, non-complaining and faithful. So has my boat, "Retriever," now that I think about it. I have let them down at times - for example, I wrecked the boat on a reef in New Guinea and drowned "Old Yammering" in the process. It has been a long, tough career for that engine, with hit-or-miss maintenance and jury rigged repairs.
 
Now here is how you should take care of your engine. First off, if you do not have the service manual and parts manual, then you should get them. Yanmar's manuals are excellent, Westerbeke's are C-minus, and most others are good to very good. I keep a maintenance log right inside my service manual.
 
Let's talk lubrication first. Change the engine oil about every 100 hours. Read what your manual says and try to do it. People ask, "why so often?"  Because large amounts of carbon are deposited in the oil which really hurts it's lubricating ability. The carbon also blocks heat transfer and affects the cooling function of the oil. There is also a buildup of sulfuric acid which can damage the bearings. Use good oil (I like Delco 400) and use quality filters. I have broken both of these rules and it is hard to know how much damage was done. Once, in the Solomon Islands, a very windless place, I used five gallons of coconut oil topping up a significant engine oil leak until I could get to an island where I could fix the leak and buy engine oil. The boat smelled great, by the way.
 
Check your transmission fluid level once in a while. Sniff it for any burned or sour smell, and change it on schedule - my Yanmar manual says every 300 hours.
 
The cooling system: Here in the tropics the water is warm, which is a disadvantage in the battle to keep the engine from overheating.  Diesel engines operate under a piston compression of 350 to 550 pounds per square inch. If your average bear is standing tip-toe on a square inch of your piston ….. well, I digress, but it is a lot of compression, four times that of a gasoline engine. This high compression puts great strain on the engine and creates a lot of heat. It is absolutely crucial to have a well functioning cooling system.

Gasoline engines can suffer from numerous overheating episodes without ruining the engine. Not so with diesels. Overheating can occur rapidly and can do serious damage. Inspect your hoses. I put on my glasses and an LED headlamp for this job. I look at each hose and its hose clamps. Hoses get old – they crack, they split and they blow off. The clamps dig in and cut the hose. The clamps rust, corrode and break. Replace those old clamps and pay the extra money for the best. Get heavy duty, 316 stainless steel clamps by ABA. Spend six dollars a clamp instead of two dollars. It's money well spent. 
 
Clean the cooling system. Drain out the old coolant, read the instructions and refill with a properly mixed solution of coolant or anti-rust agent and water. Don't just guess. 
 
There are a number of gaskets in the cooling system that can fail. If your engine is over ten years old you might consider ordering these and having them on hand. Definitely have an entire spare raw water pump aboard. Also have impellors and all the little parts to rebuild this pump. When it goes, change out the old pump with this spare, and then later in a quiet anchorage rebuild the original pump, which becomes your spare. The freshwater pump has a longer life. Mine failed after about fifteen years. Also have aboard a spare filler cap and a thermostat. 
 
When in doubt, clean everything. This is the first principle of maintenance. Clean the raw water thru hull at each haulout and periodically by diving down with your mask and fins. Clean the raw water filter. Clean the air filter. Clean all the gunk off your alternator. Take off every wire and clean and polish the terminals. Especially take off the big black battery cable that grounds to the bolt on your engine.

Sand off all the corrosion on the ring terminal and polish to a gleaming finish with metal polish. Now degrease, scrape, treat with Ospho (phosphoric acid) and wire brush the bolt and the area on the engine where the cable attaches. You want clean metal to metal contact here. This perks up your whole electrical system. It also helps you lose weight and look younger. Try it, you'll like it.
 
Fuel system: Problems with the fuel system generally do not cause engine damage, but they can affect engine performance and be very annoying. In the third world I only take on diesel fuel in jerry jugs. Then I can leisurely pour it into my tanks through a filter. I use a three stage "Baja" filter. Still, water and dirt get into one's tank. One way water gets in is through a faulty O-ring seal at the deck filler cap. Another way is through a tank vent. Then there is condensation … anyway, water happens. Every six months or so I pour in some anti-microbe "Biobor" or its equivalent. This kills bacterial blooms at the water/diesel interface. Of course, change your filters periodically. Take your Racor primary filter apart so you can clean the whole thing.

I have installed an outboard motor type squeeze bulb in the fuel line before the Racor primary. This speeds up filling the filter after an element change and pushes air bubbles out when bleeding the system. On my Yanmar 3HM35 there is no need to bleed the various points mentioned in the manual. I simply crack open the nut at the base of the fuel injection pump and squeeze the primer bulb until all the air bubbles escape. Using the little thumb operated lever on the feed pump is for people with masochistic tendencies, athletic thumbs, or lots of time on their hands.         What about an electric fuel pump to bleed the system? I prefer the relatively cheap, simple, reliable, non-electric squeeze bulb. Here's a little quiz:
 
Most problems in life are caused by?
 
a)     Girlfriends
b)     High cholesterol
c)      Politicians
d)     Electrical things on boats
 
If you answered "d" you're right. One reason that diesels are so reliable is because they don't have a lot of electrical stuff on them.
 
The exhaust system does not need much maintenance. The anti-siphon valve needs periodic attention. Salt crystals can jam it in the open position, spraying water all over the engine room. Long ago I removed the valve from the top of the loop and put a hose over the stem. This hose goes through the cockpit side and into a cockpit drain.

This is a nice arrangement. I can easily pull the hose out of the drain to check if I have cooling water, which saves having to lean over the stern. Also, I can feel the temperature if my gauge/alarm is not working. Lastly, I have a ready supply of hot water for washing dishes, clothes, cleaning fish blood, etc. right there in my cockpit. 
 
Every four years or so, if your diesel is acting sluggish on acceleration, unbolt the exhaust elbow and clean out all the accumulated carbon and rust. You will be amazed at how much is in there. Prime, paint and bolt everything back on. Remember to always grease each bolt you are replacing. This will make it a lot easier to remove next time. Nevr-Seize is good, as is lanolin. I like to wire brush the threads clean first. 
 
Diesel engines are pretty reliable. Use your service manual as a guideline for how often to change the oil, etc. You don't have to be perfect, but you should try. You should run your engine at least every seven days. Allow the engine to warm up, then run it at about 1500 RPM for about five minutes and shut it down. Avoid prolonged idling. If you need to charge your batteries but don't want to go anywhere, try putting it in gear and pulling on your docklines.

Take it easy, you don't want to pull the dock over.
 
Take care, and I hope to see you on the Rio. 

Lock your dinghy!!

Running the bar

OVER THE BAR you'll see river scenes like this. Photo by Brian King, s/v Mustang

 

Lightning

 Benjamin Franklin was a genius. He was a Renaissance man, interested in everything. He could cook, he could dance, and he could bow and kiss the hand of a beautiful woman. He traveled, read everything, and studied science, nature, politics, music, history. His curiosity knew no bounds.  

He invented things. My favorite is a spring loaded bed. Not a spring mattress – the bed itself had a coiled spring under the headboard, and when the hand of the clock struck, say, 5:00 AM, a latch would release the spring, flinging the occupant out like a catapult. Ah, so much to do … so little time. 

 Ben was always up to something. During lightning storms he would fly a kite with a metal key attached by a copper wire. He wanted to see if this new invention, electricity, was the same as this natural thing, lightning. He found out that yes, it basically is. Franklin made up a lot of the words we still use today: negative, positive, conductor, battery, ground, and electrician. Much later men with names like Ohm, Ampere, and Watt added to the lexicon.      

Now let me set the scene. We have this beautiful natural wonder called the Rio Dulce. This is a freshwater river and lake system that goes way up into Guatemala by way of an entrance from the Caribbean Sea. A bunch of cruising sailboats, and some powerboats too, have found their way up here. Right now, during hurricane season, the dozen marinas are pretty much full, and there are more boats anchored out. The weather is tropical year round. The hills and mountains are green. The water is warm and swimmable.       

My Guatemalan “guardian” and his boys come over and we work on boats. At coffee break no mention is made of the fierce lightning and thunder of the night before. This is totally routine. I imagine they think this happens everywhere. Once in awhile Santos will tell me about a big tree that has been killed by lightning. We pass the word to our favorite tree cutter and he comes with his chainsaw and cuts it down and into lumber. Living trees are not to be cut, but dead trees are literally a gift from heaven.       

Every season a number of sailboats get struck by lightning in the Rio. Not too long ago a catamaran named “Tandem” got hit. The couple aboard were unharmed except for the ringing in their ears from the gigantic thunderclap.  “Second Wind,” anchored near them, saw the lightning bolt strike the top of “Tandem’s” mast. A cloud of smoke the size of the boat formed above the mast and slowly drifted off downwind. “Tandem” hauled the next day at Ram Marine. Peppering the two hulls were about 80 “exit wounds” at and below the waterline. These were about the size of buckshot from a shotgun. What was really interesting were the scorched patterns radiating outward from the holes. Each of these “sunburst” patterns were similar, yet each was slightly different in the way that fingerprints or snowflakes are similar but unique That’s nature for you, that’s lightning: unpredictable, amazing, uncontrollable, beautiful, destructive.        

The catamaran, “Island Time,” was hit recently. An examination of the hull with the boat hauled out of the water showed no apparent hull damage. However, the boat’s electronics and electrics were fried, and the 12 volt batteries have swollen lumps in the casings.       

 “Gitane,” down in Texan Bay, was hit. There were holes blown out of the fiberglass at the chainplates, and small holes above the waterline in both hulls. Again electrical and electronics were toasted. A side flash from the “Gitane” hit traveled two slips down and blew apart one of the hulls in a plywood trimaran. The compartment had gas cans and propane tanks in it. People fell off barstools up in the restaurant.       

 Here are a few statistics from the insurer, Boat US:Catamarans are hit twice as often as monohulls. If the boat is anchored out it is five times as likely to be hit as boats in marinas. In the US, thirteen people a year are killed by lightning on boats. The average lightning insurance claim is a whopping $20,000. As far as I know Boat US doesn’t cover boats that go cruising outside the US, so for ordinary, stay-at-home boats, Florida has the most claims, followed by the Chesapeake Bay area. Boats without masts are hit much less often, but still struck in significant numbers. Boats in freshwater are hit more often and sustain more damage than boats hit in salt water. Fresh water is a better conductor, I suppose. One boat in Sarasota, Florida, has been hit five times.      

Now for a little science, sort of.

Positively charged ions are flowing skyward from the top of your mast during an electrical storm. Coming down from the clouds are the corresponding negative ions looking to “hook up.’ These are called “stepped leaders” – stepped because they are in a zigzag or stepped pattern which becomes visible when the ions connect and the lightning bolt flashes.

Zillions of volts are released. If you draw a semi-circle with a radius of about 200 feet, (65 meters) off the top of a mast, this is the boat’s sphere of influence. A stepped leader entering this semicircle will be drawn to the mast and hit it. The electrical current will go down the mast and the rigging wires to ground itself in the water. This happens in less than a second.

If there is a direct path to ground (water) the lightning might do less damage, but what really worries the insurance companies is something called “side flashes.” Let’s say we are on a charter catamaran, and the mast is stepped on the fiberglass deck.

There is no metal strap connecting the base of the aluminum mast to a metal keel or a ground plate. The lightning comes down the mast and flashes sideways, looking for metal chainplates or battery cables or engines or water tanks. It will happily pass through a human being, which is a good conductor of electricity.

Remember, humans are mostly water. So the hapless charterer is electrocuted. Say the dead guy is a 30 year old, high powered Wall Street lawyer, on vacation with his wife. Can you imagine the lawsuit? Loss of potential earnings over the course of his life, left behind 2.5 children who need to go to college, etc, etc. It makes that $20,000 claim for fried electronics look like small change.       

Now, even if you have a strap from the base of your mast to a metal plate bolted through your hull like the ABYC recommends; even if you have a copper battery cables attached to the shrouds at the deck level and left dangling in the water; even if you’ve done your best, and maybe disconnected some radios and other electronics, and then your boat gets hit by lightning, a high percentage of your electronic and electrical equipment is going to be ruined. With lightning there is an electromagnetic pulse generated that can fry sensitive components, even if your boat is not hit.  It doesn’t have to go through wires.

In the case of “Tandem,” anchored off Tortugal Marina, another neighboring cat, “Neos,” was not hit, but sustained significant electronics damage, and at least one boat in the marina had a toasted inverter. I suspect there will be more damaged electronics discovered when the absentee owners return to their boats for the cruising season.      

 So our hero, Ben Franklin, invented the lightning rod. The idea was that the lightning would hit the metal rod, go down a copper wire or strap to the ground rod, which was a copper rod driven into the ground.  Thus the lightning would not strike the wood roof (in those days) which could set the building on fire.

My old boat shop, in Washington State, was a former apple packing barn. Up on the peak of the roof, on top of the ventilating cupola, was a wonderfully decorative, wrought iron “Franklin Rod.” This was hit at least twice while I was living there. The lightning rod was scorched and blackened, doing its job. That wooden barn has been there since 1910.      

Now, on a sailboat, the mast is a lightning rod. Lightning is not going to come down and hit the deck or the bow pulpit. The mast will intercept it.       

A few years back stainless steel “ion dissipaters” came on the market. Looking like a bottle brush, the theory was that when mounted on the top of a sailboat mast, the bristles would somehow dissipate or stop the upward flow of positive ions.

Well, like vegematic choppers and snake oil, this was a useless product that somehow caught the imagination of certain people.  My friend Jack, in Guam, just had to have one of these things. Guam has lots of lightning. It is also a hurricane magnet, and has frequent earthquakes. People there get a little preoccupied with nature run amok. Jack talked lightning protection with anyone who’d listen. He explained the theory to us rather dim-witted unbelievers. He drew diagrams for us.

“Ah, right Jack, um, do you have any more beer?” we’d ask as we huddled below on his boat as lightning crashed all around. So his wife, Sandy, got him an “Ion dissipater” for him for Christmas. On Boxing Day we hauled him up in the boson’s chair.

After installing it he was exuberant. “Ha ha! Now my boat is protected, immune, untouchable! I am under the ‘cone of protection.’ You guys, however, are sitting ducks.”    So the New Year’s Eve party was in full swing at the Mariana’s Yacht Club, when a thunderstorm  moved in.

We all watched as (you guessed it) lightning hit Jacks’ mast. Jack dinghied out, and came back with smudges on his face and little burned bits of his “ion dissipater.” Did this do-dad make his boat more likely to get hit? We all thought so. The jokes went on for weeks, with people making “dissipaters” out of old TV antennas aluminum strips, and the kids’ slinky toys.       

The University of Florida has a couple of lightning experts on their faculty. One has started a company to outfit new boats with lightning protection systems. These appear to be costly and over complicated. To refit an existing boat, the best thing to do is to connect the base of the mast with a battery-sized cable, down to a keel bolt or through bolt to a big plate on the outside of the hull.

The bigger the plate, the better - say, minimum, two square feet. Copper and bronze are better than stainless steel. The experts say do not connect to your existing radio’s “dynaplate”. If you are leaving your boat for the season, give some thought to disconnecting some of your electronics, and store them in your oven. Better yet, take them ashore.       

Varnish: Brightwork in the Tropics

  First of all let me tell you where I am coming from.   I LIKE WOOD. 

I like making things from wood and then varnishing so that I can take pleasure in looking at them.   When I built my sailboat “Retriever”,  some thirty years ago, I was so proud of it that I varnished the whole thing.

 The hull is planked with Alaskan Yellow Cedar and when varnished it turns a very rich gold color.  For a while I called the boat “Golden Retriever.” 

As you probably know, preparation is the key to success.  Down at my shop in Cayo Quemado we use scrapers and 3M wet-or-dry sandpaper for getting teak and other woods back to “bare wood”. 

Revarnish every three months

If the varnish surface is good, and we just want to do two or three top coats, we use 3M ScotchBrite pads (the purple ones) to knock off the surface gloss of the existing varnish. 

I am pretty good at “cutting in” and I have quality tapered brushes for doing this. But when my guys are varnishing, we tape off everything; metal , fiberglass, painted surfaces- everything that does not get varnish.   

Casey with kayak

Cleanliness cannot be overemphasized.  No dust on the surfaces to be varnished.  No dust on the worker’s clothes. Perfectly clean brushes and varnish pots.

Use clean quality brushes

Never varnish directly from the can.  Pour out enough for half an hour into that perfectly clean pot.  I use expensive natural boar bristle brushes.   The ones with white bristles are meant specifically for varnish.  One of my brushes is over twenty years old.  

I have not found any good brushes in Guatemala, not even in Guatemala City at Cemaco.  The next best thing, and in fact many pros now use these, are disposable foam brushes.  The only good ones are marked: “ JEN”  on the handle. 

Tools of the trade

Cheap lookalikes will get all soggyand fall apart with any product (paint or varnish) that has solvent in it.  If you have a good brush you must scrupulously clean it;  like voting- clean  “early and often”

After four or five washes in solvent, I further clean the brush in water with dish soap.  Because they are natural pig hair (bristle),I shampoo mine once in a while.

Prepping with Scotchbrite pads

So “What’s the best varnish?”  I can tell you because this is the Rio Dulce Chisme-Vindicator (internet)  and not a  boating magazine which relies on their advertisers.  

The best varnish is Epifanes.  I think it is pronounced  “ehpeefawnees”  I use gloss  for exterior  woodwork  and matte” rubbed effect” below decks.  This is a true “spar varnish” made the old fashioned way. 

Epifanes varnish

Don’t use polyurethane varnish on your boat’s exterior woodwork, despite what the label on the can says.  Polyurethane is fine for interior joinerwork.  One good one I use below decks is SUR brand “ Barniz de Poliuretano-504 Barniz Marino” available locally here on the Rio Dulce.  

The best local exterior varnish; (I have tried them all)  is Lanco  brand “ Marine Master - Ultra Spar Marine Varnish. “ 

Other good varnishes: If Epifanes is a “ten”, then  Pettit/Zspar  2015 Flagship is a “nine”. Pettit  1015 Captains is an “eight’ . . I haven’t tried it yet, but West Marine’s Five Star Premium (made by Epifanes) looks promising. 

I don’t like two part catalyzed varnishes like Awlgrip, Bristol and International Perfection.  I also don’t like Cetol which was promoted by the otherwise good magazine Practical Sailor.

Sooo-“How many coats and how often do I varnish?”   

For exterior brightwork ,you want a minimum of seven coats- ten is better.   If you don’t have sun covers you need to varnish every three months- one or two coats. 

“You’ve got to be kidding?”  you say.   No, I’m serious.  If you only do two or three coats and call it good,   you will soon be scraping and sanding it all off again.  You need the buildup of multiple coats with ultraviolet blockers in each layer. 

Varnishes like Epifanes have lots of UV blockers in them.  Don’t be tempted to coat exterior woodwork with epoxy for a base . 

West System and others say you can do this as long as you top coat the epoxy with good varnish. It may work in the Pacific Northwest or New England, but it won’t work in the tropics.   The UV light penetrates right through the varnish and epoxy and degrades the wood right at the epoxy/ wood interface.

s/v Chewink

I use West System on my clear coated kayaks because I need the strength of the epoxy for the thin delicate wooden skin.  So I top coat with seven coats of spar varnish and keep them out of the sun when not paddling.

Despite the modern trend of no wood above decks epitomized by Beneteau, I like to see nice varnish woodwork on a boat. 

Exterior brightwork

In the photos is the beautiful sailboat Chewink from Maine.   The owners are active cruising sailors who have circumnavigated twice and take great pride in maintaining their yacht in “Bristol Fashion”. Varnish is one part of that equation.

BACK TO TOP...