Staining is just preparation for varnishing. We talked about staining recently here. Now it’s time for a bit of strategizing. We’re anticipating about 6 coats of conventional varnish (Interlux Schooner 96) and then about 8-10 coats of AwlWood MA Gloss over that. When you’re talking about that many coats, spraying is the way to go.
Spraying takes more prep time. You have to build a tent to isolate the boat from the rest of the shop so you don’t end up with varnish overspray all over your tools and everything else in the shop. You also have to mask off parts of the boat that won’t get varnish. But once you get those things done, it takes about an hour to spray a coat on the boat and clean up afterward. With about 3-4 hours application time for rolling and tipping, and 14-16 total coats, you can see how much more efficient spraying is. Not to mention you end up with a much nicer finish quality.
As I mentioned, we’ll start with 6 coats of conventional varnish to seal the stain. Although the AwlWood Gloss is a much more durable coating than conventional varnish, it would lift the stain if applied directly over the top of it. We also have to sand each coat of varnish after letting it cure for at least 12 hours. AwlWood can be overcoated without sanding within about 3 hours for a quicker build.
Well, we ended up with 6 coats of conventional varnish (Schooner 96) as planned, and 13 coats of the AwlWood MA urethane. That’s a total of 19 coats for this baby. You know how it is–you just keep striving for that perfect coat for the final one, and it looks great until you see the run! Keep going until you’re happy with it. More is better with clear coating. So this baby will be well protected from the sun’s damaging UV rays.
Soon it’ll be time for caulking the deck seams and upholstery. She’s coming together!