Rub Rails | Varnish

With the sides of the hull finished I was keen to varnish the rub rails and the transom.

First I machined-sanded the rails with a P120 grit and finished them by hand with P180.

This is what they looked like.

That was better! They were quite dirty and marked after months of work on the hull.

Time to break out the varnish. I had again switched brand to Epifanes, and chose their single part, traditional yacht varnish.

It has a very high reputation. This is it.

I followed the product instructions to the letter.

On bare wood they say to apply three heavily thinned coats to penetrate the grain. These coats are thinned with 50%, 25% and 15% of Epifanes thinners respectively.

So I did that. It really did sink in and seal the grain.

We are then required to apply at least four more coats. I thinned all four coats with 10% thinners, and it flowed and cured beautifully.

This is the port rub rail after it's final coat.

The rails look fabulous. The varnish has cured with no brush marks at all.

Mrs Boatbuilder really liked them. "Wow, they really pop!", she declared.

I'm so pleased I switched to Epifanes!