Is there an alternative to varnished wood?

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dewatte

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I have a vintage McGruer sloop with lots of exterior varnished wood, both original and recent solid mahogany and recent mahogany marine ply. Location West of Scotland, so damp a lot of the time. Varnish does not work. It peels off the solid wood and the ply, and where it comes off the ply the wood stains a lighter colour. I am looking for an alternative to varnish that is a 'once a season' treatment which gives a reasonable appearance and protect the wood. And is there a stain I can use to deal with the bleached areas on the ply prior to protective treatment?
This is a big ask, I know, given the location, but I don't want to surrender to the paint solution without a fight.
dewatte
 
Varnish will work if applied properly. It peels off only when something interferes with the bond. This normally happens when there are too few coats or a join in the wood, nick or rub has let water in. You need at least 8 coats for your region. The wood must be well prepared and the first coat well thinned as per the instructions. The biggest problem is standing water and uv on flat surfaces. If you can cover them it will help immensely.

As for alternatives none are as good IMO. People seem to like wood stain for low maintenance. I removed this from my boat as IMO it looks 'lazy' and doesn't show off good wood as it deserves to be. Others feel it is a pretty close replica and the small difference is worth it for the lack of effort required. Other alternatives include completely sealing the wood with an epoxy to protect it and then use this stable substrate for the varnish which will protect the epoxy from uv. There are some epoxy type products with uv protection but IMO if you don't seal the whole piece perfectly you will get some peeling and it is a bugger to repair. Some people just use an oil but it does require regular use and can get dirty in areas with high use.
 
In Shetland a few boat owners used to use good quality exterior grade breathable wood stain. No where near as good looking as recently applied varnish but lasted and gave the one coat a season touch up without peeling if initially applied to sound dry wood. But then we only had wood trim not big areas to coat. Might not look so good on cabin sides though. Before that I tried Scandinavian multi coat wood oils, they looked good for two or three months but gave up during the winter.

I still use various brands of stain on all the wood trim, it has stood up to both the Orkney and Azorean climates.

I once asked a Scandinavian skipper how their boats almost invariably had brilliant varnish work. Simple, he said, our boats have to be kept in sheds all winter.

Quite a few years back PBO ran a series of articles comparing different coatings for wood, including a variety of stains. May be worth looking for archive copies.

Hope you find a satisfactory solution.
 
The reason varnish is still used is because nothing has been invented that truly replaces it yet. As said, if it's done properly then it is a once a season solution, for the interior you should get away with doing it even less.

If your varnish is peeling then it's time to take it all back to bare wood and start again. Once you have half a dozen fresh coats on then the finish should last for years with a minimum of maintainence.
 
Humm, well I suggest that its the first two coats that gives varnish (and paint) its success rate.
The answer is the keying of these coats to or really into the wood, not really easy with newish hard woods. No real key allows the varnish to become just a protective coat sitting upon the woods surface, just waiting for weather, rain and temperature changes to seperate the coating from the Wood , nasty.
 
Woodlouse said:
The reason varnish is still used is because nothing has been invented that truly replaces it yet. As said, if it's done properly then it is a once a season solution, for the interior you should get away with doing it even less.

If your varnish is peeling then it's time to take it all back to bare wood and start again. Once you have half a dozen fresh coats on then the finish should last for years with a minimum of maintainence.
Click to expand...

+1 This is my experience too, having had varnished boats for many years now. Covering over in the winter helps greatly too. Damp and frosty weather will fetch any surface finish off wood.
 
Another vote for International Woodskin. Easy to apply, gives a good satin finish, does not crack or peel, easy to touch up and should give you several years usage before refinishing. Don't be tempted by any of the oil type finishes as they all evaporate and need constant refreshing.

Woodskin and its earlier formulations sold under the Cetol brand name score near the top in all the long term tests for cost and longevity.
 
I used to blowlamp and scraper strip off all external varnish (ordinary yacht vanish not polyurethane) and revarnish every year. About 6-7 coats. Then with a bigger boat did sand/touchup one year, strip and revarnish the next year and so on. Both boats had a lot of varnished wood externally. Had less money but more time and younger knees then.

Once made the mistake of using two-pack polyurethane varnish: lasted well but when it did start to fail the job of getting it all off was horrendous.

Personally I love the look of wood, and think the skin/stain/oil finishes are mostly pretty 'orrible. But on buying present modern boat one of the specs was "...there will be no varnish externally".
 
I use fairly liberally thinned varnish for the first few coats, in order to get the adherence that's required. I'm over in the Inverness Firth, so the conditions aren't too different; anything but paint and obscuring the wood though! Good wishes with this though.
 
I'm also based in the west of Scotland. I keep Rumbuster (varnished 36ft Sparkman & Stephens Sloop) in a shed near Oban during the winter which reduces damage and also makes renovation work more civilized. As has been said, I don't think there's an easy way to maintain a high gloss wooden hull finish. To be fair to the new stain products, I have a friend who has beautifully finished wood to complement a white hull but I don't think the matte finish would suit a whole hull. In my opinion the Scottish climate is both a blessing and curse - wind and rain take their toll but then again lower summer temperatures / less intense sunlight are kinder to the varnish.

My coating of choice for the hull is Deks Olje which I realise is a 'Marmite' product but I'm happy with it.
Typical winter maintenance is a very light sanding and 2 coats of the gloss D2 finish to top up the protection - about 6 hours work in total. That regime has survived 10 years since the last 'wooding' of the hull.
This winter I've gone back to wood to make some repairs and stain the mahogany as it has bleached over the last 50 years. Just completed about 10 coats of the D1 base oil (as much as she'd absorb) followed by 6 coast of D2. With an annual top up as above I'm hoping to get 10-15 years before the next major work.

All other wood - cabinsides, toe rails, covering boards etc. - is costed with Epifanes. I adopt a similar regime - light sanding and top up each year which seems to work. I think the Epifanes gloss varnish dries to a harder finish than Deks Olje hence using it where it might get more knocks.

To be honest I wouldn't use the epoxy / 2 pack products - great when new but if damage occurs and water gets under them they are very difficult to remove / repair.

Martin
 
Another vote for international wood skin - easy to apply and maintain and looks very good. Took all the varnish off my rubbing strikes and then sanded and applied wood skin two years ago - still looks good after two years on a mooring.
 
Good morning, I'm following this debate with fascination.. I have decided to go for Cetol Filter 7 Plus, which is like Int. Woodskin but cheaper and comes in more colours.

The trad yacht varnish is no good if you have limited time (and patience), and live aboard a wooden boat, yet want to keep it pretty and maintain its value.

All this talk of 37 coats, progressively thinned, ain't gonna happen in my lifetime... LD
 
Having used burgess wood sealer in the past, it is really difficult to remove from grp if it spills - I still have not found anything that will remove it!
 
Almost overkill but yet another vote for Woodskin. Easy to apply, lasts well, doesn't need loads and loads of coats (I'm with Lindsey Doyle on that one - my life is too short!). It looks pretty good - maybe not as good as hard varnish, but good enough for me. Also second the comments about epoxy finishes - they are a nightmare to remove.
 
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