Fitting out.

Ok, these will be the last of the 'land-based pics'.

Final fitting out is finished, compass and riser mounted, knee braces and seat glued in place, holes drilled in bow and stern for lifting toggles.

Done deal?

Well here is the "finished" product, awaiting the rest of the deck rigging.

Upside down.

Here is the first coat of varnish on the hull. Just more of the same, high shine and seeing every tiny blem. The blems will diminish as depth of the varnish builds up with the wetsanding inbetween.

I was real close to painting the bottom with high build primer and black paint, figuring the hull will take a beating. It is part of the challenge I suppose to try to get a good finish with brightwork, so I will save the paint for when the kayak needs to be refinished later on. Hopefully it will see that much use.

3rd coat of deck varnish, out in the light.

Here are a couple shots of the boat out in the light after the 3rd coat of Interlux Schooner varnish on the deck.

They do look good in pics, all the little blems are hard to see in pics and probably only the owner sees it all, most people looking from a step back and taking it all in. But these boats are not intended to be a "shiny coffee table" anyway, are they? Thrown on top of the car and tossed into the water are what they are built for.

Anyway, put the varnish on as thin as possible and maintain a wet edge. The sponge brushes work very well. To speed things up a bit, you can use a fine 4" sponge roller but be careful, runs in the varnish are something you do not want. Patience, build up the coats slowly.

Originally, 3 coats was going to be it for the deck of this hull. But the 3rd coat was my worst coat, for little specs of dust settling on the finish and brush marks. This is how people wind up with 6 coats of varnish....just one more may be the last. Or maybe one more, etc.

Mirror!

We can drive ourselves crazy with the final sanding, going around the boat over and over. There comes a point when we have to say good enough and slap on that first coat of varnish and see how everything turned out. Just the deck got the varnish today. I have to say it looks great, difficult to photograph, the mirror shine is really something after 3 months of work. So are the fumes. Be very careful with this stuff, wear a mask and ventilate.

4 more coats are needed, wet sanding with 400 grit paper inbetween? Maybe just 2, I do not see the need to put 5 to 6 coats of varnish on the hull. 3 is the minimum to offer UV protection for the epoxy.

The last of the epoxy?

Yeah, I think so! Glue in the hatch rims, fore and aft. These type of hatches are a little more work but in the end I think they look better without all the straps on top holding them down. I will post pictures of them finished with the internal hardware at a later time. Stay tuned.

Break time.

After all that sanding, someone needs a break and some fresh air.