Cedar Strip Kayak Building: Varnish Cycle

Just some building notes today. I'm a couple coats into the varnish cycle. The HMG Coma Berenice clear spar varnish that came with the kit is slow drying and they recommend at least two days between coats. The advantage of being slow is that it smooths itself out after application without any brush marks (thinned with 5% Coma Berenice thinner). Good stuff.

So far I've learned a couple things: 

Varnish the hull and deck in one step, deck first.  Do the deck while the varnish and brush are fresh.  No one is really going to look closely at the hull anyway.

Varnish the kayak upside down.  This significantly reduces the amount of dust on the deck.  I had planned to varnish the deck with the kayak right side up, and then have someone help me turn it over so I could varnish the hull, but I'd rather be able to work alone.  It's probably a good idea to avoid any manipulations during varnishing anyway, because they could stir up dust or smear the fresh varnish. On your hands and knees looking up at the deck is not the optimal position to varnish the most visible part of the kayak.  It's easier to miss spots. But there will always be dust no matter how much you attempt to clean the shop.  Between coats I take the kayak outside and wet sand it, so the plastic walls of the Clean Room are pulled back just enough to open the garage door and get the kayak out, and then all the activity that goes on while varnishing stirs up more dust. It's better to let it fall on the hull than the deck.

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It was a little cool and rainy yesterday so I let the finish dry another day while I worked on the bulkheads. Although I glassed the bulkheads into the hull prior to joining the hull and deck the bulkheads were still not attached to the deck. By the way, I highly recommend attaching the bulkheads while the deck and hull are still separated. It's not easy to crouch under an upside down kayak and make fillets and lay down fiberglass with your head and one arm stuck in the cockpit or hatch opening, so it's good to minimize that as much as possible. It helps if you have really long arms.

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The moon face came through OK.  I subjected it to the heat of the sun oven for several hours, brushed on a final thick layer of epoxy, then heat cured it again under the lamps overnight.  No more evidence of delamination.

Comments

[Carlo Santayana]

So, what's the kayak resting on while it's upside-down? I'd imagine it would be a bit easier (and more effective) if you could adjust the distance between the kayak and the floor, lie down on a creeper, and put on a face mask while applying coats of varnish on the deck... hey, Michaelangelo did the Sistine's ceiling in a similar supine position, didn't he?

[Andrew]

Hi Carlo!

I have it on a piece of 2x4 clamped vertically onto a sawhorse, one through the cockpit and one through the front opening. It's pretty simple. Some people will string theirs up by the ends or with ropes that attach inside the cockpit somewhere. The creeper is a good idea. Even just some padding might help. I have some big canvas drop cloths I could put under there but they collect a lot of dust. I could use my Thermarest pad too, but I don't want to get any varnish on it.