Now, the fun part. With the hull and deck sanded smooth, I installed the rub rails, which is the last step before brushing on the finish. I scarfed these from some 2x4 stock I got at the Home Despot, ripped to the proper dimension and planed smooth. You'll probably have to go through a giant stack of 2x4s to find one that's knot-free enough to use for this. I've found that it's easier to find clear grain if you look through the longer stuff. Seems like all the 8 footers were in the forest about a week before, and are cut from saplings that were about 5 years old, but the 12 footers seem to come from better quality logs.
I then cleaned the whole thing with some thinner, then let it dry before applying the finish. I used Z-Spar polyurethane. The finish will come out very smooth if you follow these basic application tips: Apply the finish with strokes that go crossways first, then without dipping the brush in the can again, go across the crosswise strokes the long way, starting from dry to wet so that you don't put the brush down into wet urethane.
About a half hour after I had applied the final coat, a damp fog rolled in so I decided to bring the boat into the house to dry. Here it is sitting at the kitchen bar.
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