Varnishing - when things go wrong
I took a day-off from work to attend private issues but early afternoon I could go to boatyard with plans to varnish Meritaten.
I came at the time when Kaika was being launched.
Börje was on place while Jim waited down there, at the ramp. (BTW Anders told me that I should follow this example and also NOT be present at the boat-hall when my boat is being lifted - that makes him nervous…).
We admired fine job Jim did on his boat!
Weather was great so I stayed a few minutes while Kaika was being put in her proper element, talking with Jim and Börje.
My plan was to clean Meritaten with water shower but Börje took me away from this idea: resulting humidity will stay long on existing varnish, risking that new coats will not “sit” properly and peel off or blister during the season. One would have to be stupid not to listen to this guy so I decided to vacuum her properly instead.
Back to my boat I started with removing all masking tape from deck and whale-decks, left after deck painting. This prove to be messy and long business as tape either sit too hard or paper was too weak, resulting in constant tearing and forcing me to work very slowly. It took me at least an hour to clean all tape.
I vacuumed entire deck and hull and moved to preparations for varnish. I use Epifanes clear varnish and normally do not dilute it with solvent.
Started with port whale deck, I was moving aft at constant pace. Things were looking good. After finishing the whole side I went back to see if there are any sags. All seemed to sit well so I started varnishing port freeboard. In the meantime Peter arrived, to repair a boat in front of me but when he saw that I varnished he pulled away, not to disturb.
Halfway through the port freeboard I noticed that there are sags forming on the whale deck and front side of freeboard. I instantly decreased amount of varnish being brushed and continued until I finished the whole side. Upon looking back I noticed that now I have sags all over the whole area! To my horror they were everywhere!
Nothing to do right now but I took this feedback and started varnishing starboard side with even smaller amount of varnish. It was a year ago since I varnished such big surface so it took me a while to recall how the brush should feel upon spreading just enough amount to properly cover yet not to sag varnish. Also - how hard one needs to really drive the brush to join new area with wet edge of just covered part. There is a characteristic feeling at hand and even sound the brush makes while driving the varnish home - I simply varnish too seldom to instantly recall the right feeling, resulting very often that half of the boat is filled with sags or “vacations”. And it always is a port side!
Whale-deck on starboard side turned out perfect!
With good humour I continued varnishing freeboard and then things started to get difficult again. Not only I fell from my temporary platform (but did not spill varnish!) it also started to get late and temperature dropped. I could not check the time - watch was hidden behind vinyl gloves and Tyvek overall - but from light intensity I saw that it is getting late in the evening. Varnish was getting too thick and it seemed I will barely have enough of it to finish the job. I had another can with me in the car but I didn’t want to pause current job as it would result in visible edge. I continued franticly, brushing hard thickened varnish until 30cm before the end the can was empty. Well - nothing to do about it, I had to run for another can.
When I started with fresh varnish I noticed instantly how easy it became to varnish. Apparently the previous can had so thickened varnish that I should have diluted it for easier application, saving time, effort and my precious brush. Lessons learned - when it starts to drag I need to add solvent, otherwise it is useless waste of time and tools.
Anyhow - starboard finish became good. No sags, no vacations and all areas joined to form nice, uniform finish. It’s far from the quality of Ander’s or Börje’s job but it is sufficient for me, at this stage.
I plan to put another coat on whale-decks during the weekend. These few days should be enough for current coat to harden. While inspecting this unfortunate port side I decided that I need to address the freeboard too. I don’t want to launch her with so many ugly sags so I will need to cut all of them with the blade and matt the whole area with Scotch-brite.
Ah, well - it’s a work of love, sometimes it takes longer than expected.