I have not seen many folks who were happy with Polycrylic.

Use non poly varnish. Not marine varnish, just non poly. You will probably have to go to a real paint store(I use Sherwin Williams) or Ace Hardware store(Solvent Based varnish).

Reason is poly coatings are partially plastic and cannot easily be spot repaired---meaning a chip or burn means stripping/recoating the entire surface.

A chip/burn/;etc. area in a surface done with regular varnish can be sanded and repaired by feathering the edges.

Thanks Handymac. I went with Waterlok - so far so good (though I have a couple more applications to go through).