Somebody in the know will chime in here quickly, but I seem to recall people using water based stains prior to epoxy.

Cheers, Grant

Yes  Grant is right use either water or alcohol based stain. Oil and epoxy don't play well together.

 Andy

Just located this CLC Shop Tips feature about using stain. Hope this helps you:

http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/finishing-tips/staining.html

 Best, Grant

Water soluble aniline dye is cheep and easy to use.

Many thanks to Andy, Grant, and "dehager" for your quick responses.  Now I am good to go.

Rich

I used aniline water based stains on my wife's WD12, worked awesome.  one time that worked well for me, clear coat the parts that you do not want stained with epoxy so that the stain does not bleed.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20081&cat=1,190,42942

Bear in mind that the waterbased dyes (like Lockwood and others) are not very lightfast. They will fade, often dramatically, from exposure to sunlight. A UV-resistant varnish may help slow down the fading. Some alcohol-based dyes that use metallic colorants (like Behlen SolarLux) are more fade resistant.

Cheers, Pat

When I built one of the Mill Creeks I wanted the deck to match my classic Chris Craft.  I used oil based mahogony filler/stain on the Deck only! I worked it in then used a marine sealer then multiple coats of Captain's 1015 Varnish. Turned out beautiful and still looks great 12 years later!

You cannot use the resin with oil stain but doing a traditional finish on a deck looks fantastic.