How to prefinish inwales/spacer blocks

[Clinton B Chase]

I would like to hear what folks have done on their inwales in their small boats. Do people have varnished spacer blocks and varnish on the inside of the inwale or those places all painted. I have yet to glue in the inwales b/c it would be nice not to have them in while sealing and priming the inside of the hull. I was thinking of prefinishing further and painting the inside of the sheerstrake my chosen color then gluing in the inwales, cleaning the goo carefully and doing a last coat of paint. Also if I paint the iside of the inwales and the spacers the it makes sense to tape and paint it off the boat then glue it in and touching it up. What have others done? How far have you prefinished before installing the inwales. Or should I just glue the damn inwales in and paint in all those slots carefully? What has worked/not worked for others?

Cheers,
Clint

[JimConlin]

Later, if the space between a ventilated inwale and the planking is paint on one side and varnish on the other, its maintenance will be impossible. If there's only one finish involved. foam brushes work pretty well at getting into a 3/8" slot. Either varnish the sheerstrake or paint the whole works.

[emichaels]

Clint, You asked me earlier how I dealt with the spacer blocks and inwales. I glued the spacer blocks, at the spacing I thought looked nice, to the inside of the hull first. Then the blocks were dry, I sprung the inwale in place and glued and screwed this thru to the outer strip. I decided to spray the finish in this area, perhaps the whole boat, but definitely in this area.

Eric