Why Sailors Use Varnish Not Paint
If you have a boat with a lot of bright work (wood that
needs Varnish or oiled) you will have to invest a big chunk of time to maintain
it. With a lot of teak on a boat you need to either let it turn naturally gray
or oil or varnish it.
Our boat takes about two weeks to go over all the top side
teak. Here in Florida it only take about 10 months before it starts to need
attention again. A year or so ago I got thinking that Paint stands up better
than Varnish down here and I mentioned to my wife I might paint the wood, not
varnish it.
I got the “not on this boat you won’t look”. All she said was she wanted varnish not
paint. I dropped the idea…I still had plenty of varnish anyway.
Not too long after that we Visited Mystic Seaport and I say
a man redoing a small part of a boom that had a discolored worn spot. He was
just doing that small spot and he told me the trick was to scrape the area,
clean the spot and then add a few layers of varnish starting with the small
spot and with each layer expand the area to build up the low spot and then
feather it in to the varnish that was good.
I ask: “Why not just paint it and be done with it. It would
be a lot less work. The man smiled and
said : “Bright work needs to be varnished not painted to get the Traditional
look and for safety”.
One reason you varnish bright work is so you can see the
wood. If a crack develops it will discolor and you can see the damage. You
don’t see cracks in painted wood. Many varnishes seep deeper into the wood than
paint dose and protects the wood better. The paint pigment just stays on the
surface and seals the wood. Paint will look better longer, but it hides defects
in the wood.
That makes a lot of sense. On spars and booms you want to
see problems developing. I do like the look of varnished wood better than
paint, and I can see why some things can be painted and some things should be
varnished.
Our boat looks special when the bright work is done. I am
glad I decided not use paint. 8-)
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