. . . how would you have done it?

I wouldn't have spent so much time sanding. At this stage you are going to cover the wood with a coarsely woven piece of fabric which will hide a lot of minor scratches and scrapes. Why bother with doing cabinet-grade sanding? sure, you want it faired properly, but anything beyond a medium grade of sandpaper is just becasue you have fallen in love with the smell of the wood, and the smooth feel of it.

Many doctors believe this is the addiction thing kicking in. You will probably suffer from sawdust withdrawal for a few days, but after you get a couple of coats of resin on that cloth you can get another high by sanding that smooth. Following that you can get repeated stimulation from going over each coat of varnish, snading with successively finer grits of sandpaper until you find yourself putting ordinary typing bond on your sander. Then there is the buffing and polishing until the boat gleams in the dark.

Take care, and enjoy the experience while it lasts.

PGJ