Monthly Archives: July 2015

Fairing the Bottom of Adagio

By Greg Bull — GBI Technical Advisor

While fairing the bottom of your boat may seem beyond your reach, it is a project that novices and experienced boaters alike can accomplish with a few simple tools and a love of a little manual labor. Most seasoned sailors would agree that a clean bottom leads to faster sailing. Sometimes it may be necessary to do more than scrub away the algae and zebra mussels, though. In the case of Adagio, 44 years of sailing was starting to ripple the bottom of the boat. Simply put, it was time to fair the bottom.  Continue reading →

Repairing an Edison Concert Phonograph

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Ronnie Janowicz, a good friend of mine, called to say the wooden horn on his antique Edison Concert phonograph was cracked. I had Ronnie bring it by so I could take a look.

I told him it could be repaired very nicely with epoxy if that is what he wanted to do. “Why wouldn’t I want it repaired that way?” he asked. I explained that repairing an antique with epoxy may affect its resale value if the potential purchaser objects to the repair. Some collectors take a dim view of wooden antiques being repaired with epoxy because repairs are not easily reversible like they would be if hide glue was used for repair instead.

Continue reading →

The Norway Boat

The Norway Boat

By Gene Steely

This is the story of the Norway boat, a 20′ sailboat manufactured in Norway in 1956 by the Ejvinds Company. This boat sailed from Iceland to the east coast of Canada, then down to Miami. From Miami, it sailed south to St. Croix and the Virgin Islands. After a few years in St. Croix it was brought to the Florida Keys 1967 and had two or three different owners. I purchased the Norway boat in the Florida Keys in 2003 and brought it to my home in Murray, Kentucky for restoration. Continue reading →

Common Errors in Fiberglass Laminate Repair

By Jeff Wright — Vice President of Technical Services

While most of our customers are successful when using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy to repair a damaged fiberglass laminate, we have become familiar with some common errors that are easily preventable. These mistakes are made by both professionals and amateurs. The information discussed in this article is available in our Fiberglass Boat Repair Manual and WEST SYSTEM User Manual, and on the WEST SYSTEM website. Continue reading →

Building the Dream

By Laura and Philip Harvey

We started building our dream boat, a DH550 55′ catamaran we christened Wild Vanilla. Our catamaran was built on a piece of land just behind Budget Marine in Trinidad, during a break in our long-term family cruise. Before we began, we had sold our boat building company, Harvey yachts in Cape Town South Africa, and set off on our 38-foot cruising cat. Onboard were our nine-month-old son and our cat, Velcro. Continue reading →

Great Lakes Boatbuilding School

Keeping Our Maritime Heritage Alive

By Bruce Niederer — GBI Technical Advisor

On November 27, 2006, ground was broken on a perfect waterfront site overlooking the Les Cheneaux islands in Cedarville, Michigan in a ceremony that marked the end of a two-year fundraising effort and the beginning of The Great Lakes Boatbuilding School.

Continue reading →

Wooden Goblet Rx

By Tom Pawlak — Retired GBI Technical Advisor

Vern, a good friend of mine, turned the exterior of a wooden goblet made from a nice piece of spalted sycamore. Unfortunately, the blank was not as dry as he thought and it cracked along one edge as it sat uncovered on his lathe overnight. He called to see if there was anything available for gluing it back together. I said I had some ideas and asked him to drop it off at work so I could take a stab at the repair. Continue reading →

Bryan Jacobs

Introducing Bryan Jacobs

The Gougeon Technical Department has added a new lab technician, Bryan Jacobs.

Before coming to work at Gougeon Brothers, Bryan Jacobs served in the Army and earned the rank of Sergeant (E-5). Bryan served multiple combat tours in support of the global war on terrorism and was awarded the Bronze Star. He then tried out for a Long Range Surveillance Unit (LRSU), where he was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Continue reading →

Repairing a Keel with G/flex Epoxy

By Don Gutzmer – GBI Technical Advisor

The advantage of repairing a keel with G/flex Epoxy is that it is a toughened system that has a tensile elongation of more than 30 percent, which would prevent cracks from reappearing in the fairing compound. A local boat owner called our technical line and asked about repairing his cast-iron wing keel with WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy. He asked if a technical advisor would be willing to take a look at the cracks on his keel and recommend the best way to repair it. After looking at the boat I gave the customer a callback and recommended using G/flex® Epoxy. He asked if I knew of anyone in the area that could do the repair. I told him that I would be willing to take on the job and thought it would be a good opportunity to write an article about repairing a keel with G/flex Epoxy. Continue reading →