That's why they invented paint. -Wes

Yup - do something cool (other than white) and people will think it is awesome.   I just used black on my Kaholo bottom and it looks really great.   Did white on the two kayaks before than and also very nice.   What else can you really do?   It will still look great and nobody will know that you didn't intend to do it that way all along.

I'm building an annapolis wheery as well, and its hard not to make mistakes that you regret at some point along the way.

I've seen some photos of very nice finishes that were a contrasting mix of varnish (bright) and painted, so if you can reserve some particular details to finish bright it could look great- like the transom, seats, bulkheads, gunwhales, quarter knees, breasthook.  The good news is that you'll have less varnish to worry about!

By the way, I was worried about filling all the holes so that epoxy wouldn't make a mess, and considered thickened epoxy/ toothpicks etc., but decided not to after reading some of the posts on the forum.  There has been very little seepage through the wire holes, and that little bit was very easy to scrape away with a cabinet scrapper.

Good luck,

Hickory in Seattle

In the unlikely event that someone reading this forum repeats my mistake, I want that unfortunate soul to know that there is a simple solution.  A friend and co-worker who dabbles in furniture making took a look at the splotches, picked up a cabinet scraper and with a few delicate strokes removed one entire splotch.  After scrapping about one hundred other splotches the enterior of the boat is ready for the varnish that I had hoped to apply!

I found out (the hard way) that it is a lot easier to clean the epoxy if you 'plug' the wire holes after epoxying the wood.  You can easily scrape the partly set epoxy and clean any remaining mess with denatured alcohol.  On bare wood the thickened epoxy seeps into the wood and makes clean up a lot harder.

Mihai