Feature Strips on Cedar Planked Rowboat

I received a cedar strip rowboat kit with all the strips having a pretty uniform shading..so i thought I would stain a few strips for some visual interest ..ah there's the rub

the boat is getting a final coat of West 207 clear epoxy and fibreglass so West insists on a water based stain or dye...i spoke with a tech from Behlins who make such a dye and he said sounds great but if used outdoors the stain would fade away in a couple of days even under the epoxy...suggested i use a water based pigment stain...alas....this seems very hard to find...can anyone help?

thanks in advance

peter lederman

 

Epoxy doesn't last long under the sun neither, so you need some UV filtering varnish anyway.

 

It's a bit late if you have already applied epoxy, insofar as stain is concerned.
The alternative is an absolutely even coat of a darkened varnish. Nor is a good idea to use anything but an approved stain if covering with epoxy, which you've already done, so too late.
Anything you use now will not be a stain technically, but a colored finish. Such finishes (a darkened varnish or high-tech polyurethane finish) are extremely finicky and probably ought to be sprayed. I wouldn't do it. If the epoxy's on, it's on. But then, I like paint anyway for hulls, having maintained both. Touching it up, it is impossible to get an even look. It wants to be the same thickness as the surrounding area to look the same because you're also looking through it. Overlap will show as splotchy. The boat, if it's to be used at all and not babied, will eventually look so bad it will have to be painted.


Alan

 

thanks alan...in fact i havent applied any epoxy and i am just beginning to strip the hull...i just wanted to have some color variation along the way...what i believe they call a feature strips...so looking to dye/stain a few strips and make sure the dye/stain is compatible with the west epoxy and glass finish...i believe the final finish is a coat of clear varnish

 

you're right...the epoxy coat is preliminary to a varnish finish..still looking to get a little color on several cedar strips along the way