Clear Coat and or White Paint over Cedar

[akin_alan]

I have got a 1965 wooden D-scow. It's basically a 20 foot C-Scow made for a Jib. I am refurbishing it. The cedar has a couple of distinct rotten places but they are not bad. I've sanded the bottom of the boat and am in the process of stripping it. The wood looks good with exception of two large off white epoxy spots on the middle of the bottom.

What I plan on doing is stripping, bleaching, staining and clear coating the two bottom sides before painting the very bottom with a wide parallel white strip running the length of the boat. I think think that the white strip will look good and will also cover the two big epoxy spots in the middle of the bottom. I might even put a thin red strip between the clear coat and the enamel to match the sail.

My brother is warning me. He says, "I would not clear coat. The sun will destroy it" I say, "Yes, The clear coat can't stand the sun forever, but It's a racing boat. I'll only sail it on weekends and will have a tarp over it at all other times. It won't get much more sun than I will. In a few years when it starts looking bad I'll finish it again. Until then it will be beutiful." I think.

If you see nothing wrong with my plan as oppose to my bother's, here is my question. What would you recomend as clear coat, Clear Epoxy, Clear Epoxy with sun screening additives (If they exist and are translucent enough), Urethane, Polyurethane from Lowes or Home Depot (Cost is a factor, not too big of a factor, but a factor, elbow greece, in a few years, is less of a factor) or Varnish or perhaps one of the above with varnish on top.

Also if you have any advice as far as the type of paint for the very bottom, in white, please feel free. I think I'll use something with a hardener but would consider something not quite as high tech to save a bit of money. I'd even consider house paint if I knew that it would last and look good for just a couple of seasons. The boat will be sliding on and off of a trailer mind you.

You'd be suprised at how much research I've done but no book or website has gotten specific enough for me. I am sure their are many solutions but I want an ideal solution.

[Ed Harrow]

Now here's a topic... Just recently there was a similar post (questions about clear finish). I don't know if you read it, but I'd guess not as it answers a lot of your questions about clear finishes. Our own Bob Cleek has, twice in mortal memory, laid out the whole clear-coat process in fine detail.

Epoxy is NOT UV resistant, and I don't know how UV resistant UV resistant epoxy might be (if it exists). What many here suggest is that, after stripping, the wood be coated with CPES (another item upon which to search for lots of information) and then finished with a good-quality marine varnish (lots of opinions on what that might be, LOL), but three generations of my family swore by Man-o-War.

What's the story with the rot? It spreads, like cancer. Leaving it there seems not the best.

As to paint, well I'll leave that to others.

[Todd Bradshaw]

When I rebuilt my Starboat I clearcoated it's mahogany sides (Stars have an arched bottom, hard chines and flat sides). I used alcohol-based stain followed by about six rolled-on coats of WEST 105/207 epoxy resin, sanded it smooth and topped it off with a couple coats of Z-Spar Captain's Varnish. The bottom, skeg, keel and rudder had the same epoxy base but were painted with white Easypoxy enamel, which works fine for dry-sailed boats, but you wouldn't want to leave it in the water over a long period of time. I owned the boat for another 6-7 years, day-sailed it and kept it outside under a Sunbrella boat cover year round. About five years in, I moved and had to change the registration numbers. I wondered if the old ones would leave some kind of shadow where the clearcoat had discolored or the stain had faded, but there seemed to be no visable trace. When I finally got rid of it, it still looked as good as the day the varnish went on...except for the small hole that lightning blew in the bottom, but that's another story (I could have sworn that I added some lightning absorber to the epoxy....)