Wet sanding. A strange and unfamiliar concept to me. My entire cabin is built of wood, mostly tongue-in-groove pine, and since nearly all of that wood has been left unpainted and exposed, I grew to be intimately familiar with a belt sander and the huge quantities of dust it kicks out. Thus, I was both surprised and delighted by wet sanding. When using 220, 320, and 400-grit sandpaper, it is a surprisingly peaceful activity. There is no roar of the motor -- no dust to breathe or try to avoid by wearing an uncomfortable mask. Instead, one is constantly bathing one's hands in a soothing basin of warm water and gently caressing the maidenly curves of the "Susan Lee."
After sufficient fondling of the hull, I got down to the sticky business of applying the second coat of varnish. And it did not go well. Earlier, in applying epoxy, I found I could reuse my "paint" dishes, so I tried the same thing with the varnish. In fact, I even tried to reuse the foam brush which I had stored with a bit of paint thinner in a sealed plastic bag. Everything went well at first, but after a short time, the fresh varnish in the dish seemed to loosen up some of the dried varnish lining the dish. As soon as I started seeing little specks in my freshly applied varnish, I called a halt, threw away the brush, and switched to an unused, clean paint dish. Even so, I continued to have some minor problems with mini-drips and "holidays." I was able to lay on a good coat of varnish and I can fix most of the little drips by sanding before the next coat. But I'm not thrilled. Oh, I'd certainly be satisfied to have a finished boat looking just as it does at the moment, but I can imagine it looking better.
So, I'll try to make the third coat even better. And I'm fairly confident that the fourth coat of satin varnish will effectively conceal a host of minor flaws. But only time will tell.
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| Some imperfections visible in reflected light |
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| Generally smooth finish |
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| Minor imperfection in reflected light upper left |
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