I live in Florida and there is a brand of UV friendly epoxy made here, used on surfboards and paddle boards. I tried it on a kayak years ago and had problems. First it didn't wet out the cloth as transparent as MAS or Silver Tip and at certain angles you could see the weave. Second, after a couple of years in the sun it started to delaminate so I took a heat gun and stripped the entire boat. Re-glassed with MAS and it still looks good. I don't mind having to do a few coats of varnish even though it adds time to a build. I don't want to mention the brand name here and it's probably not what you're using. Yours may be fine, I'm just a bit skeptical now about UV inhibitors in epoxy. Time in the sun will tell if they really work!

George K

  Thanks George for the input. I've not had the surfboards and SUPs made long enough to validate the effectiveness of the UV inhibitor in this epoxy. True, time in the sun will tell. 

My main reason for asking was I got a great looking finish on the boards with the epoxy, but I would not want to do what you had to do, strip the glassing and start again. I'll play it safe and venture into using the varnish. I might use some of the epoxy I have left to coat the interior of the Kayak, as I hear it's not uncommon to run short on the MAS epoxy as a new builder. Does this seem like a reasonable approach?

   Sounds reasonable. Not that much sun in the interior. That being said I still varnish the inside of the cockpit where the most sun hits as I don't wear a spray skirt and our sun is brutal! And we'd like to see photos of the boards you've built. Also what kayak are you building?

Have fun!

George K

  George,

Being new here I haven't quite figured out how to post pics, but here's a link to my SUP build on another forum. There are pics of a few other boards I've made in the post;

 https://www.woodtalkonline.com/topic/31026-virus-inspired-stand-up-paddleboard/

Picking up the Wood Duck 12 Hybrid tomorrow at CLC. Excited for a new challenge. I mainly do woodworking with a focus on chairs as my hobby, but branching out to new builds is always exciting.

Brian Mc

 Interesting boards, cutting edge in nose design. I thought you might be building Grain boards, I wasn't aware of the site and plans you're using. I used to follow Swalocks forum years ago, if you haven't checked them out already it's a good place to go for info on all types of boards. Keep us posted on your WD build. 
 

George K