OK. I went back to March 10-15 and reviewed the lively discussion of varnish. Everyone seems to agree that Z-Spar Captain's varnish is "THE" varnish to go with. Some people think that Z-Spar Flagship varnish is the way to go. Great.

Last week I was at Defender Marine for their big four day sale. I picked up a can of Captain's varish, turned it over, and the first think that jumped out at me, in BIG BOLD LETTERS was "NOT FOR USE BELOW THE WATERLINE"!!!

Now I'm confused.

There were many representatives from many vendors at the sale. One of the reps was the Z-Spar rep. I asked him about this discrepency. The rep explained that while the Captain's Varnish did have UV inhibitors in it, it was not designed for extended water exposure, and this could cause problems. The Z-Spar rep recommended that I use Petit Ultra-V-Gold Exterior Gloss Varnish. (Z-Spar and Petit are the same company, just different labels)

I looked at the Petit Ultra-V-Gold label and noticed that this is a urethane varnish. I told the rep that it was recommended on this board to avoid urethane finishes. The reps response was that urethane finishes are less forgiving in the application, and therefore you might get a better looking finish from the Captain's Varnish if you were not careful enough in applying the urethane finish, but for the application I described (wood/fiberglass kayak) that the Petit Ultra-V-Gold was the best product for the job. Here is a blurb from their web page:

Ultra-V-Gold Exterior Gloss Varnish

This is a premium urethane varnish with ultraviolet inhibitors to maintain outstanding gloss long after ordinary varnishes have faded. Ultra Gold provides remarkable scratch and chip resistance. Among its attributes are those making it a pleasure to apply - easy brushability, excellent levelling and fast buildup. In applications under Florida's brutal sun, Ultra Gold showed virtually no weathering or degradation after months of continuous exposure.

END QUOTE.

Any comments or thoughts on this? I am glassing my boat soon, and want to be prepared when it comes time to varnish.

Larry Thompson

here is the link to the web page for Z-Spar and Petit