Monthly Archives: March 2015

woodville queen steam launch

The Woodville Queen

by Ken Stewart

Above: The completed Woodville Queen with a full head of steam.

My father, Glenn P. Stewart, instilled in me an interest in steam engines. He frequently talked about his early experiences (about 1930) working in a sawmill powered by a steam engine. A thought went through my mind. Here I am a graduate mechanical engineer and I don’t even know how a steam engine works. So I went to several steam engine shows in the area and got more interested in them while learning how they operate. My wife and son Mike bought me a steam launch kit with a boiler and engine kit which I enjoyed building and operating with radio controls. Continue reading →

project brighter future

Project Brighter World

by John R. Marples

Above: Project Brighter World on demonstration day. The boat performed very well, sailing at windspeed even though it was about 30% heavier (due to the heavy batteries) than the normal sailing vessel design weight. The project was considered a tremendous success.

In early 2007 Impossible Pictures of London, U.K. approached me to participate in a boat demonstration using a Flettner rotor-powered trimaran. They were filming a demonstration for the Discovery Channel’s Project Earth series. Our program would be called Brighter World. Two atmospheric scientists, John Latham and Stephen Salter, had devised the Albedo effect, a way of changing the reflectivity of clouds to deflect some of the sun’s heat, cooling the oceans. It required a flotilla of vessels to seed clouds with small saltwater particles. Our trimaran would be a prototype for this type of vessel. Continue reading →

rocket

Unveiling of UK’s Biggest Ever Rocket Ship

Starchaser’s unmanned capsule will be ejected mid-air and is designed to land safely by parachute.

Courtesy of Wessex Resins & Adhesives LTD

A Salford University academic with ambitious plans to send tourists into space by 2013 unveiled the UK’s largest-ever space rocket on Tuesday, July 1, 2008. The project, sponsored in part by WEST SYSTEM UK Distributor, Wessex Resins &Adhesives Ltd., used WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy in the rocket casing and for fairing the body. Steve Bennett, who heads the University’s Space Technology Laboratory, presented his 58′ Nova 2 rocket at the University and discussed how his company, Starchaser Industries Ltd. (Starchaser) plans to launch it next year with the help of school children from across the UK. Continue reading →

Pioneers of Speed

by Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: The proa Slingshot was one of the true pioneers of speed, topping out at 40 knots.

There are those who believe sailing fast means advanced composites with high-tech fibers, exotic cores, and plenty of cash. Very few think of wood when they think of fast, but before carbon fiber, before Kevlar™…there was wood. Continue reading →

Arundal 27 underway

The Landing School Presents the Arundel 27

The Arundel 27, designed to the highest standards by Steve Dalzell, is a handsome day-tripper. Her traditional appearance is the result of cold-molded construction with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. Laminated layers of marine plywood and Western Red Cedar form the hull, and the transom is built with mahogany. This construction makes the hull stiffer than fiberglass boats but just as easily maintained. Continue reading →

Dalotel Aircraft

Resurrection of the Dalotel DM 165

By Ray Ordorica

Above: The Dalotel DM 165 in flight.

I’ve had a strong interest in airplanes since I was a kid. I had always built model airplanes and went to air shows as often as possible. I loved the “warbirds,” and built many models of them, and of other more-common aircraft. Of course, I had always wanted to fly, to become a pilot, but for many reasons, I couldn’t make that happen. During my college years, my interest in aircraft waned, but after college, I moved to Alaska, and of course, aircraft are part of the Alaskan lifestyle. Continue reading →

large wooden vessel repair

Thunderbird

A legendary commuter yacht

by Mike Barker

Above: The legendary commuter yacht THUNDERBIRD, underway on Lake Tahoe. She was built at Huskins Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan, which later became the manufacturing site of WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy.

A little history lesson. Last year a cousin of the Gougeon Brothers, David Huskins and his family, visited the Thunderbird Lodge on Lake Tahoe. He sent us a couple of photos of Thunderbird, the legendary commuter yacht designed by John L. Hacker in 1939. It was commissioned by George Whittell and built by Huskins Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan. Continue reading →

epoxy testing is performed in the GBI lab

Testing, Testing, 123

by Julie Jezowski

Above: the state-of-the-art lab where Gougeon chemists perform much of the company’s epoxy testing.

By now most of you know that we are the manufacturers of WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. But you may not know what is involved in the manufacturing and more specifically, the formulating of WEST SYSTEM. It’s not just slapping some chemicals together and then packaging it up into a pretty box. To date, we have performed thousands of tests and generated thousands of test results. Continue reading →

Emergency rudder repair with WEST SYSTEM Epoxy and fiberglass cloth.

G/flex Saves the Race

by Grace Ombry

Above: Robert Patenaude performs emergency rudder repairs with G/flex so he can get back into the regatta and take first place.

Robert Patenaude had ten miles left to reach the finish line in the Bermuda One-Two offshore race when a 30-ton whale hit Perseverance, his C&C 41, seriously damaging the rudder. Not content to drop out of the competition, he called on his racer friends to help him remove the 160 lb, 9′-long rudder from the boat while it was still in the water. He reasoned that if the contenders in the Puma or Vendee Globe races could make major repairs without dropping out of a race, he could too. Continue reading →

Fifty Plus, a Quiet Times powerboat

Building the Fifty Plus

by Grace Ombry
Epoxyworks 26

Cover Photo: Carl Puehl’s FIFTY PLUS, a modification of the Ted Brewer design, Quite Times.

A 37′ powerboat is a bit of a luxury for a self-employed handyman and jack-of-all-trades like Carl Puehl. But he’d always wanted to build a boat, and he decided to fill the gap between what he wanted and what he could afford. Continue reading →