Help with Spar Varnish

Hello. I need help. Lots of help.

I purchased a 1959 MFG 12' runabout. It has a fiberglass hull but the seats, dash and bow deck are wood. The boat is in excellent condition, but the varnish on the bow was beginning to crack. I was told by an old-timer to simply sand it and apply a couple coats of spar varnish, and it would look super. Well, I read up on woodwork and decided that if the varnish was cracking, it was best to strip it and start over.

My life my never be the same.

So I stripped it and proceeded to use a mahogany colored wood filler. So far, so good. Then I put on a layer of Interlux Spar Varnish, thinned 10% with Interlux Brushing Liquid 333. Additional coats I did not thin. I let each coat dry for approximately 24 hours between sanding and varnishing. My deck now has 4 coats of varnish and I thought it was dry until I turned each piece of the deck upside down to scrape the varnish off from around the edges. (I removed the deck from the boat for this job - two pieces.) I scraped the congealed drips of varnish from the underside, and when I flipped my deck over again, I discovered that I had destroyed the finish. It was awful. The varnish was so soft it had become dented and dinged and ripped and torn and...well, you get the picture. It was destroyed from sitting on the saw horses. I'm frustrated beyond words - and the thing is, I really want to become good at this type of work. I read everything I could get my hands on and I thought I'd done everything right. I've read since that spar varnish remains tacky. But I think my project was beyond tacky - the finish isn't even functional, being so suseptible to damage. What have I done wrong? I'm planning on stripping it all off and starting over - but I can't afford to keep buying spar varnish, so if anyone out there can be of assistance, I sure would appreciate it. Thank you!
Travis Wallace

 

Travis,

I've done quite a bit of varnishing and the only thing I can think of is you might have to allow each coat to dry longer. When you sanded was it fine dust or did it gum up the paper?

If you cover not quite dry varnish with a new coat the undercoat can remain soft. What are the conditions where it's drying? Maybe try 48hrs?

Good Luck KJC