The oils are for bare wood. If that boat was built according to the manual it should be at least epoxy encapsulated. It may also be glassed. In either case, oil finishes are not appropriate.

If you really don't want varnish (and a non-skid additive would take care of the slipperiness) there's always SeaDeck. I used that in all parts of my schooner that are meant to be sat or stood upon and I'm happy with it.

Paint with non-skid additives is also a good choice.

Laszlo

Laszlo is right as usual. I would add a little discouragement about using varnish.  The interior gets a lot of unexpected wear, scratches from sand and pebbles stuck to the bottom of your sneakers, or a long streak where you tossed in the paddle. If your kayak will reside on top your car, and the interior exposed to brutal sunlight all day long, and then after a thunderstorm will offer its hospitality to a pond, bvarnish will prove to be insufficient.  On another thred we have discussed the ravages of UV radiation on the epoxy, no matter how many coats of varnish you try to defend it with.

Initially I painted my Wood Duck interior two colors, one for the bottom and another for the side panels.  Looks very nice but when you repaint there's a lot of awkward taping off..  On reflection--after several years of careful taping off and repainting--I would've been better off with just one color.

Also I find that if you want to paint deep in the interior of a Woodduck, it's easiest to hang the Woodduck vertically in a tree and go in headfirst with the paintbrush, like wearing a big hat and cowl.

PS. Lazlo has a schooner?  Forgive my going off topic but, are there pics?

Yes I do. Here's a picture that one of the CLC Matts took of it at MASCF 2013. All the materials, except for the sails and some rigging, came from CLC so it's really not off-topic, right? More at http://www.morocz.com/BoatBuilding/SchoonerBuild.htm .

Lazlo,

I voted for your schooner at the Mid-Atlantic show in October!  It's a beauty!

  If the dullness in the finish is the epoxy reacting to UV radiation, are there any longterm issues with strength? Or is it just cosmetic and only effects bright finishes? If you just painted over it with a pigmented paint would it come back to bite you in the butt a few years later if the epoxy degraded?

To Chester Yawl:  Painting over with pigmented paint should freeze the epoxy in its  current state of strength, or weakness.  If the sun can't penetrate there should be no further UV damage. Is the epoxy strong enough now to hold the hull together?  If so you can go  ahead and paint.  If not, if stuff is coming loose, plywood delaminating, well . . . I have repaired small sections of epoxy,  a crack in my Woodduck, that sort of thing.  But those were small epoxy repairs.  I would not want to try to sand off the whole boat and start over.  There comes a point at which you might be better off building a new boat.  

To Lazlo:  Wow. And thanks.  Inspirational.

I do not know how it would apply to a yawl, but nick has a video showing removal of fiberglass with a heat gun prior to reglassing a kayak after lots of hard use.

Seems easier than building a new boat.  Perhaps not as much fun.

I had the same problem and afriend of mine gave me an idea to go for the waterproof decals and stickers.

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I'm tempted to follow an earlier suggestion of leaving the glass weave unfilled inside my WD12 to use the roughness as automatic non-skid.  But do I still need to put down a coat of PreKote before the polyurethane?  If I do, won't sanding it get rid of the "non-skid" properties of the weave?

Peter,

Really rough weave is a good skin abrasive. Use some scraps to make up a test panel, then put it on your chair and have dinner in swim trunks. That'll let you know just how much sanding you actually want.

Laszlo

Thanks, Laszlo.  Lovely reality check.  I think I'll give it a wee bit of sanding, as suggested.

Peter