Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Help with my first attempt to re-finish a boat

After a year of looking at my Keith Steele I finally have the time to get started. It has been sanded down and I'm ready to proceed. My plan for the exterior is to epoxy the bottom up to the rub rail for strength and to fill any voids. Next layer will be Durabak, Hercules Liner, or Coat-It over the epoxy. The boat had a grey coating of some kind over this area previously and I quit trying to remove it after some of the wood was going with the old, brittle grey material. I want to paint the exterior of the boat with some kind of paint, leaving the rub rail and all trim natural wood color and varnished. On the inside of the boat I plan on painting the floor and maybe the guest and rower's thwarts the same color as the outside of the boat. All other wood will be varnished. Any recommendations or advice on epoxy, bottom coatings, paint, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Brian

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Permalink Reply by Frank R on July 8, 2011 at 7:16pm

Epoxy by itself does not strengthen wood. It is an excellent sealer but it is not structural.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Richards on July 8, 2011 at 9:07pm

Frank, you weren't much help but thanks for your second and a half.

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Permalink Reply by Frank R on July 9, 2011 at 6:01am

Sorry, I did not mean it that way. Often, people have unrealistic ideas of the properties of epoxy. This is the result of marketing hype of some epoxy products that tout the ability to strengthen rotted wood. It does no such thing. It may stabilize it but it is not stronger as a result.

Now epoxy over fiberglass will provide strength but I hesitate to mention that because you may have a historical boat and there is a lot of disagreement over the use of fiberglass here anyway. My advice: if the wood is not rotted, proceed as planned. If it shows sign of rot, you may be able to buy a few more years with a fiberglass layer. You may want to treat the wood with anti-freeze as I mentioned in my previous post.

As for your liner material, I have no experience but I am considering it for my little boat so I am interested in the responses myself.

As for paint, it depends on what you want to spend. Believe it or not, you can even use latex house paint: http://www.simplicityboats.com/latexcarnel.html The key is to wait two weeks for the paint to dry before splashing the boat.

If you cannot wrap your head around that but still want to save money, a lot of people use oil-based porch and deck paint.

Whatever you choose, use glossy paint as it has the most durable surface.

My friend used Petit topside paint on his boat. He said it goes on very thin and you have to put on several coats but you end up with a hard glossy finish. You don't need to use bottom or anti-fouling paints; those are only for boats that live in the water. For trailered boats topside paints are fine.

Epoxy must be covered with varnish, Captain's Varnish is one that was recommended to me. Use a traditional tung oil based varnish, stay away from the modern formulations. The UV protection is better to prevent epoxy degradation.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on July 9, 2011 at 8:15am

Gentlemen, there have been a ton of discussions on the site. The easiest way to find them is to do a search right here on the site. This is one of the most controversial of the subjects discussed on here so there are lots of opinions.

Try that out and see if your questions haven't already been answered. You will find some answers that may lead to some further unanswered questions. Let us know what you find out.

Brian, you might want to look into a search for chine logs, there is lots of discussion on the whys and why nots of fiberglass and epoxy on the chine logs. It is a lot of information and it would take a lot of typing to replicate all the discussions.

I wish you both good luck on your builds. I hope to get back to mine next week. I have spent about 100 hours so far and should be done with 50 or so more. I am using a variety of finishes on my boat from urethane to oil-based porch paint.