Thanks for the reply George. I don't know anything about how long the UV protection lasts, but I hear/imagine that a 're-coat" would be a good idea every 2 or 3 years (for both UV and finish reasons). The varathane is hard but (I think) it would still get lots of scratches etc and it would need recoating because of that if for no other reason. If this is true, it seems to me that it would be better to not have such a "hard" layer to sand down (really hard to ever sand it down to the epoxy layer again). So at this point I am going with varnish. It isn't as hard but since it will need recoating anyway this seems like a plus. This is just my "thinking" so may be off.

Arthur