[Passport] Petit vs. Epifanes. 6 months on
Jean-Philippe Gaillard
Guys,
I thought this would be helpful to you all.
6 months ago in St. Maarten I varnished my cap rail and hand rails fresh. I did it well. Sanded properly, then 4 coats and a final coat with a quick light sand before hand.
I varnished the Port side with Epifanes and the Stb side with Petit Flagship.
6 months on I can say that I've learned the following:
- Epifanes easier to apply as no varnishing required
- Epifanes not as good as Petit in Equatorial sun: turns yellow faster
- Epifanes has a major problem with small "hits". If you drop a bloc or something on the varnish, Epifanes makes a hole and then a large piece comes off, peel style. Petit sometimes just shatters a bit and you can recover with nail varnish.
Revarnishing now and doing it all with Petit. Petit after 1 coat looks already nearly perfect. Epifanes needs a few more quite obviously.
Going to switch back to Petit for all of it.
Just for general knowledge.
JP
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ChinaDoll
4 years before leaving the Bay Area and then in PV had it all removed
and replaced with 6 coats of Petit Schooner (just because I wanted to
see the boat in "real" varnish). That lasted in PV 6 months in the
2003-2004 season (came off like water).
Back in San Diego, had Petit Flag Ship replace the failed Schooner in
2004 which lasted (with two touch-ups) until 2006 and didn't look as
good as either the Cetol or Schooner (too dark --but that was suppose
to have help make it last --more pigmentation and heavier resens). In
2007 I took only the boom gallow and did it entirely in Cetol. The
rest was done (4 coats) in flag ship and on top was a "double" coat of
Cetol (clear). The boom gallows looked the best and everyone commented
on the beautiful "varnish" work on that part only --the flag ship look
good, but not as nice as the Cetol.
The flag ship with Cetol on top lasted until 2008 in PV-to-Z-town
cruising was replaced with Epifanes with a double coat of Cetol on top
at the end of the summer in Mazatlan 2008... The Epifanes was the
worst looking in my opinion because it was too dark... That lasted
until the end of May 2009 and was gone by the end of the summer after
staying in Guaymas until November 2009...
But wait, here's the rest of the story... It is now May 2010 and I
will be doing my varnish soon and I will without a flintch use Cetol.
Why? Because that piece I did on the boom gallows with Cetol only in
2007 is still in great shape and looks quite good. Yes. No joke. And
everyone wants to know why I have "fresh" "varnish" only on my boom
gallows...
So you can put want you want on your cap rails but if you do Cetol
"right" --it looks better than any other "varnish" out there and it
sure last a hell of a lot longer in hellish conditions than anything
I've use so far... But that's my opinion... And I have seen too many
“Cetol” boats that have had the most hideous looking “varnish” jobs…
Use the Natural or Light Cetol only and sparingly, and put on 4 coats
of the clear –not the other way around…
-Rob.