The boat is finally in the back yard. Here is an update on miniwax Helmspar. HTis varnish received a good rating from Practical sailor. However, After one season all the surface that I used Helmspar on are bare of varnish. In the past I have found that teak that has not been varnish in a long time doesn't hold the varnish well the first season. Next year It's back to Epiphanes.

The one part non-skid I'm please to report held up nicely. I used Interlux Interdeck. I just wish I'd use cream or biege. The gray is hot in the sun. I going to use beige on the cockpit seats and floor. THen decide if I want to redo the deck.

I've had good luck with Epiphanes also.

If you like grey Interdeck, you may want to try mixing the white and the grey - it's not as dark, may be cooler and looks great.

I'll 2nd Jason's endorsement on Epifane's wood finish gloss. I stripped Sikkens Cetol off the teak around the companionway and applied Epifanes. 1st coat was thinned 90%, 2nd coat thinned 75%, 3rd coat thinned 50% and 4th coat thinned 10%. It held up really well through last winter and over the summer. I will do a light sanding and apply one coat thinned 10% this year.

I'm in the process of stripping the Sikkens Cetol off all the exterior teak and will use Epifanes WFG on it too.

I have not tried it on teak but tiller gets four coats of VC-PLUS 5 Varnish which is usually good for a several years. Practical Sailor picked it as tops years ago.

I've used Epifanes before, but I was hoping the Helmspar would work well enough to avoid the 8-10 coats of Eiphanes. But as in so many other things there are no short cuts. Good suggestion of adding white to gray to make it a lttle lighter. It would be a nicer look than the beige.

I'll concur with Bill and others on the Epiphanes. In addition to the J/30, I have a '64 Century Resorter, all carvel mahogany plank runabout. 18 coats of Epiphanes. It works well and has some of the best flow characteristics I've seen with varnish. Others may build up more quickly but if you sand between multiple coats, it develops a remarkable, glass-like finish with a durable, UV resistence that will last a long time IF maintained (as Bill explained).

BTW - I haven't taken on the interior on my J/30 but, I was recently looking at a refit done to a Swan 47 where they used the Epiphanes matte finish on top of multiple coats of gloss. Amazing. (if you stack multiple coats of matte, it ends up cloudy, I've been told.)

(and yes - I'm a "finish" junkie. ;-)

-Jeff

I did the Epifanes Matte finish on the cabin sole two years ago. 6 coats gloss (progressively less thinner each coat) and 2 coats matte. This year I'll light sand and do another matte coat. It's pretty durable and doesn't get slippery when wet.

If you start with raw wood, it pays to really thin the Epifanes (10% Epifanes, 90% thinner) on the first coat so it can really penetrate the wood.

I've used that technique on furniture and floors. Adding the matte on top of gloss gives you some depth to the finish.

Well 8-10 seems a lot but 18 is more than I can imagine. I'd guessing you call that boat Sisyphus!