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I used Epiphanes Captains vernish (7 coats) last season on my montauk's rps, anchor locker and console lockers etc. It has held up beautifully even with the excessive foot traffic and various fish slamming around w/ plugs in their mouth up on the anchor locker hatch.

The one thing I wanted to stress however is the importance of thinning your first coat w/ turpentine so that it absorbs into the wood, as well as on later coats. Under the advisement of an old salt who use to do the bright work on my parent's sailboat, I thinned the 1st coat 30%, followed by 20% 15% then 10% for the rest of the coats. I was specifically instructed to do so with the epiphanes captains varnish. I dont know about those ratios for other varnish products, however I can say with confience that with this combo, thinning it to this extent makes the varnish considerably easier to work with. The 3 things you must not do are 1) sand before the previous coat is completely dry, 2) apply the varnish too heavilly (per coat), and 3) overwork the varnish once you have applied it. (for the last two, having your varnish thinned in this manor makes it much easier to not overwork the varnish while still applying a nicely uniform thin coat.

-Sean

P.S. You'll be amazed how far 1qt will go, and given how much work it is, no sense in not doing it w/ the right stuff the 1st time as it will make for greater longevity and easier maintinece in the future.

Good luck! as laborsome as it can be, the final result makes it all worth while :)