Ken Douglas 12' Clinker Boat Paint and Varnish?

[bigdogg1]

I am looking for advice from any wooden boat owners. We are extremely fortunate to own a beautiful 12' Ken Douglas wooden rowboat built in the 1980's.

It is is fairly good shape and I spent parts of this weekend scraping and sanding the hull and the interior. I have a few places where I will apply some Git rot and/or Gluvit but overall, it is in quite good shape.

My questions are around the white hull paint and the interior varnish. What is type of paint is typically applied? I know Interlux makes a great single part polyurethane but it is designed more as a top coat rather than a hull paint that spend time below the waterline. Any knowledge or advice is appreciate.

As well, what about the interior after I sand down the existing varnish? Just a good quality spar varnish or something else?

I would like to stay true to what Ken Douglas used originally but am open to any and all suggestions. The attached picture is the way she used to look and the end result I am hoping to attain. Thanks!

 

[Fritz]

I am looking for advice from any wooden boat owners. We are extremely fortunate to own a beautiful 12' Ken Douglas wooden rowboat built in the 1980's.

It is is fairly good shape and I spent parts of this weekend scraping and sanding the hull and the interior. I have a few places where I will apply some Git rot and/or Gluvit but overall, it is in quite good shape.

My questions are around the white hull paint and the interior varnish. What is type of paint is typically applied? I know Interlux makes a great single part polyurethane but it is designed more as a top coat rather than a hull paint that spend time below the waterline. Any knowledge or advice is appreciate.

As well, what about the interior after I sand down the existing varnish? Just a good quality spar varnish or something else?

I would like to stay true to what Ken Douglas used originally but am open to any and all suggestions. The attached picture is the way she used to look and the end result I am hoping to attain. Thanks!

My Father was a commercial painter when there were still commercial boats made from wood. Long oil marine alkyd paints with heavy metal biocides like lead and copper were the best paints for wood (according to him anyways) but that doesn’t really help up us now.
You need something that can breath. If you use a polyurethane for say fibreglass or metals it won’t go so well (that I’m sure of) Z spar used to make an old fashioned oil alkyd paint right up until 2019 but now they don’t because they’re super high VOC.
I have heard of a lot of folks using high quality exterior laytex like Valspar duramax. I talked with a crew member from the Salts tall ships once and he said that’s what they used above the waterline and if I had a trailered wooden boat that’s fine.
I haven’t used it myself but you’ll find lots of people online using it with great success.
The reason behind it is the Acrylics breath.
As far as spar varnish is concerned there are lots of good ones but I use pure tongue oil (the real stuff) of which there are lots of fakes that contain less than 3%. this is a matt finish. For gloss I like captains by pettit or look for spar varnishes that contain lots of phenol resin.
Again I wish the old Z spar flavour was still around but apparently oil is bad?

 

[bigdogg1]

Thanks Fritz. An excellent answer. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Gives me a great starting point.

 

[SpringFever552]

With his knowledge and experience with the CR tyee club @Dave H might be able to help , if not might know someone ?

 

[bigdogg1]

Thought about asking him but seems to be in back pain at this time. Didn’t want to bother him just yet.