Flat Deck Sailing-Catamaran F1 kayak build. Post 10, coating the kayak.
Coated the kayak with the same two part polyurethane we always use. This stuff goes on in four layers wet on wet over the course of a single day. That’s about as close to a miracle as exists in the finishing world.
It’s not recoatable but it’s quite tough, people generally get around five years or 5000 miles out of a skin, and sometimes twice that with careful use. I almost always use four layers on the top and bottom, and these days we are also painting on a double thickness keel strip.
The polyurethane is tinted with rare earth pigment which I’m using almost exclusively this year just to gain experience working with it. Obviously I get a lot of acid dye which produces beautiful vibrant colors that don’t hold up to sunlight very well. The pigment colors aren’t nearly as exciting but they’re a lot more color fast.
This 2 part urethane is a relatively low toxicity product compared to solvent borne urethanes but it’s not completely benign. I’ve actually been trying to understand more about what might offgas from it, but haven’t had a lot of luck (The manufacturer isn’t super helpful).
As far as I understand it’s an aromatic polyurethane, (that’s a chemistry designation it doesn’t refer to smell), so if there’s any chemistry people that follow my feed here and you have any ideas where I can find more information about what exactly is offgassing from a 100% solids two-part aromatic poly, I’d love to hear about it!
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