TotalBoat Lust Marine Varnish

Edit after 12 months below.... This is hands down the easiest varnish I have ever used. I used to use Petit Flagship on my brightwork, and it took forever to get any kind of buildup. With Lust you really can get 4 coats in on the same day. The shine is excellent and the only advice I would give you is to thin it a bit (all coats) to get it to flow out better. Some old salts will tell you this is SOP for any varnish. I did buy the TotalBoat Special Brushing Thinner 100 and I believe that may have made a difference. The ONLY downside I can find to this product is that the fumes kicked my put working right over the work surface without a respirator. Trust me, wear a good respirator (I use a P100) or you may have a Mad Dog 20/20 type headache before you even finish. 12 months later - This is a great varnish for interior work. After less than a year, and 10 coats of Lust it just failed. split and lifted. The boat is in a covered slip, but the pulpit gets Nort Florida sun for a couple hours each day. I used Lust on cockpit rails, which still look great. I reached out to Jamestown's support team, who had no answer other than "that doesn't look like 10 coats". Trust me, it was. My impression after a year? Don't depend on this in a high UV environment. It looks great on the bar in my front room and areas on the boat not in the sun.

This stuff is amazing. I used the sealer product first on two cedar projects. Then applied this the next day after drying. You can add coats about an hour apart without sanding (recommend by manufacturer) and complete the finishing in a day. Ultra smooth finish. Looks like it’s still wet until you touch it. Has a bit of amber which makes cedar look astonishing. Will be using again for outdoor projects. Goes on easily with a brush and self levels. 3-5 thin coats and it’s done. I’m still on my first quart after a picnic table and bar top. Definitely recommend.

I don’t often write reviews. This stuff is absolute garbage. It was applied the first time in climate controlled environment at a rate of two coats per day after a thinned coat was applied to seal the wood grain over a 400 grit mahogany surface cleaned with a tack cloth. Sanded lightly between coats which were given six hours to try and verified tack-free. By the fourth coat, it was apparent that the varnish was not at all tack-free once sanded. The entire project was sanded down to bare wood and the process. I opened another can thinking perhaps I had a bad batch. Nope. Made it to coat six with the same problem. Sanded the project down yet again and refinished with Rustoleum Spar Varnish. That worked the first time as advertised. Scroll past this Total Boat total disaster of a product.

I'm restoring a late 70's sailboat that has a lot of teak. Typically we've been using Epifanes, as this came highly recommended. However, this is a very expensive product. Lust also came recommended highly, so we tried it as a possible alternative. The quick dry turnaround between coats is awesome. The end result is awesome. The application is a breeze. You won't be disappointed. How it looks a year from now next to the Epifanes stuff remains to be seen, but the price is much nicer.

I’ve used exclusively epiphanies for my small boats in the past. This product does not compare. Spend a little bit more and get the good stuff. Wish it had more working time. Several coats a day is nice but sacrificing finish quality doesn’t equal speed of application.