PM53,

The pine boards that I bought from Chevy Duty (drilled and grooved) were excellent. Bruce Horkey has an excellent reputation.

51Jimmy's finish sounds like what I did - several coats of ebony stain and then several coats of thinned marine spar varnish (satin finish was my prefererence). The boards needed to be sanded before finishing - they still had minor planing marks.

Tim