Henry,

The whole secret to maintaining any wood finish, be it Cetol,
traditional varnish, 2 part poly, or whatever, is to have lots of base
coats (probably more than you think you need!)  and then put on
additional maintenance coats BEFORE IT NEEDS IT! This does take a good
bit of discipline, because of course if it looks good why should I put
more on? How often you need to do these maintenance coats depends
greatly on the product and the weather in your area. Here in the PNW I
can usually get by with an application of two coats once per year. These
are preceded by a very light sanding with 320. Also if any spots are bad
(dinged or just weather damaged) I will wood them and build them back up
with a bunch of coats before doing the maintenance coats. Then I will
blend the touched up spots in by sanding and put on the 2 full coats.

I am using Epifanes clear, a traditional 1 part varnish. When I was in
Mexico (on a fiberglass Valiant 40 sailboat), with weather probably
similar to yours, I used Interlux Perfection a 2 part poly. It held up
great in the heat there and I followed the regimen outlined above for
maintenance. The only problem I found with the Poly's is at the wood
joints. The varnish I believe is a harder finish, and tends to crack at
these joints which of course required regular redo of those spots.

In Mexico those that used Cetol had do additional coats every 2-3 months
for it to hold up.

In summary, build of lots and lots of original coats and do your
maintenance coats before it looks like it needs to be done That is the
only way in my opinion to not not have to be perpetually stripping. And
the wood will always look great!

Good luck.

Rod
NiSa
Monk 34 (wood)
Bellingham, WA

Henry Wing wrote:

I've used Honey Teak from Fabula for 5-6 years now and really like it. It's
a catalyzed polyurethane. The base coat is tinted a bit to help protect the
wood, but it leaves a beautiful finish that's hard as nails. The base coat
consists of the honey, a catalyst, and a flow fluid. The clear topcoat is
also three components. You put on a few base coats, three is good, four is
better. Then you put a few clear coats on and  you're done. You CAN put it
on wet on wet, but you need to be careful, since you can put on so much
it'll sag. I learned this the hard way. After that, the maintenance consists
of scuffing the clear coat with a 3M red pad once a year and putting one or
two more coats of clear. The finish is easily repairable if you have dings
or whatnot.

The stuff is a bit tricky to apply... read and follow the directions. It
doesn't apply like regular varnish. If anybody wants to use the stuff, get
with me offline and I can give you lots of tips and tricks from my
experience with it over the years. I've even let it go about 18 months but
that's cutting it close. You always want to put on the new coats while it
still looks good. As with any finish, if you let the coating go and expose
bare wood, you've got a bit more of a job on your hands. With HT, you just
sand around that area, and put some more honey coats on, then clear.

Here's their web site: http://www.fabulainc.com/

Keith

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Wing" wing15601@gmail.com
Do any of you have a suggestion of a product which

Alec,

Can't say for sure if the Cetol needs stripping, but my gut tells me it
does. Suggest you check with the manufacturer of whatever product you
are going to use to get a definitive answer.

If I were going to varnish in Florida I would strongly consider using a
2 part poly, even with the difficulties at joints. I believe the time
between maintenance coats in your hot sun will be increased from about 3
months to about a year, assuming enough original build up coats of
course. Any  Floridians care to comment here?

Good Luck,
Rod Mell
NiSa, Monk 34
Bellingham, WA

Alec McLocklin (amclockl) wrote: