I just finished putting the system three primer on the below waterline areas of my arctic tern (the turnip, as I have named her). I decided to go with paint below for durability (my unique paddling finesse and destinations favor durability).
But now I am thinking I could have gone with two layers of glass down there and varnish the whole thing for the same weight and maybe saved a buck. The topside LPU and primer are 35 a quart, varnish is 21 a quart and seems to go a lot farther. I know the primer/lpu combination will be tough as nails, but it ain't cheap and half a gallon of paint ain't very lighweight.

Any thoughts on durability of varnish vs. paint for the bottom???

Also, I am building a canoe as a just for fun beater from some free plans I downloaded. Anyone know of a good (cheap) paint that will stick to system three epoxy?

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Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank. Proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.