Author Archives: ewadmin

Their vacuum infusion project is still in the tooling stages. Shawn Hanna fairs the hull plug—a labor-intensive job and a tough one to get the students to focus on.

Bates Technical College Builds Boat Builders

By Mike Barker

Above: At Bates Technical College, their vacuum infusion project is still in the tooling stages. Student Shawn Hanna fairs the hull plug—a labor-intensive job and a tough one to get the students to focus on.

Boatbuilding instructor Chuck Graydon of Bates Technical College sent these photos of some projects that its students have been working on using WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy.

Bates Technical College is located in Tacoma, Washington. They offer several boatbuilding and repair programs designed to prepare students for apprentice-level employment in the boat building industry and ultimately fill positions in shipyards, marinas, and private boat building companies. Continue reading →

One reason people build boats is that they give you the opportunity to find beauty in otherwise inaccessible places. Paddlers in a 16' Prospector check out an amazing faulted rock formation in northwestern Quebec, September 2008.

Why People Build Boats

By Ron Frenette

Above: One reason people build boats is that they give you the opportunity to find beauty in otherwise inaccessible places. Paddlers in a 16′ Prospector check out an amazing faulted rock formation in northwestern Quebec, September 2008. Continue reading →

Building a Pair of Chesapeake 16 Kayaks

by Chris Jacobson

Above: A pair of Chesapeake 16 kayaks built by Chris Jacobson.

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Cover Photo: Paddling the south shore of Ontario’s Lake of Two Rivers and into Pog Lake.

It all began when we went camping in Algonquin Park in 2005. We rented a couple of plastic kayaks and the kids loved it. We came home with the intention of buying a couple of kayaks but while on the internet we saw these stitch and glue make’m yourself boats. I purchased the books “The New Kayak Shop” and “Kayaks You Can Build. ”

Continue reading →

The Lighthouse Project

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Bob, my brother-in-law, has a beautiful yard that he has set in a nautical theme. He had been looking at lighthouse plans and asked if I was interested in helping build one with WEST SYSTEM® epoxy. All the plans that he looked at were for flat paneled six or eight-sided lighthouses built with plywood. I was interested in a project that was a bit more challenging and unique, so I suggested we build a stripped plank version. That way the tower could be round and tapered like many of the popular lighthouses around the world and it would differ from the flat-sided variety often seen in people’s yards. Bob liked the idea, so he went online and found photos of lighthouses that he liked. In the end, we based our design on the Marblehead lighthouse located on the southwestern shore of Lake Erie. Continue reading →

Using G/5 Five Minute Adhesive

G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive

Uses and Tips for Furniture Repair and More

by Tom Pawlak and Captain James R. Watson

Above: G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive is applied neatly to a furniture joint. 

Let’s look at some ways G/5 Five-Minute-Adhesive can be used around the house for everything from furniture repair to building model railroads.

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A Quick Fix to a Broken Spinnaker Pole

By Meade Gougeon — GBI Founder

Above: Meade fixes his broken spinnaker pole with a blend of WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy and fast curing G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive.

Adagio, our 35′ trimaran, was already off to a bad start in the 100th anniversary of the first running of the Chicago to Mackinaw race with an over-early call by the race committee. Everything went downhill from there when we had to deal with a broken spinnaker pole. Continue reading →

A combination square is used to mark the two edges along the entire length of the corner before applying reinforcing fiber tape.

Reinforcing Fiber Tapes

By Captain James R. Watson

Above: A combination square is used to mark the two edges along the entire length of the corner before applying reinforcing fiber tape.

Composites are a blend of resin (in this case mixed epoxy) and reinforcing fiber. Folks often ask, “How strong are they?” It is difficult to answer this question due to many variables including resin type, fiber type, fiber orientation, and resin/fiber ratio. To give a value for a laminate, we reduce the variables. Values shown in this article were done with test samples using WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin®/206 Slow Hardener® at room temperature (70°F). Reinforcing fibers are Episize™ materials. Continue reading →

The Glenn Curtiss Museum

By Mike Barker

Above: A 72′ wingspan reproduction of the 1914 Curtiss flying boat America was completed by the Curtiss Museum’s restoration shop crew in early September 2007.

Glenn Curtiss is recognized as the “Father of Naval Aviation.” He trained the first Navy pilots and built their first aircraft, the A-1 Triad Amphibian. It was “Curtiss Pushers” in 1910 and 1911, that demonstrated capability to take off and land on a ship, leading to the development of aircraft carriers. Continue reading →

Six10 Epoxy Adhesive

Introducing Six10 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive

Above: Introducing Six10 Thickened Epoxy Adhesive, a two-part adhesive in a convenient, self-metering cartridge for permanent, waterproof structural gap filling and gluing.

Six10® Adhesive gives you the strength and reliability of a two-part WEST SYSTEM epoxy with the convenience of a single-part product. Six10 is dispensed with a standard caulking gun. Non-sagging Six10 bonds tenaciously to wood, metals, fiberglass, and concrete. Continue reading →

Gougeon 12.3 canoes on display.

The Gougeon 12.3 Canoe

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor
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Cover Photo: A small sampling of the Gougeon 12.3 canoe family. Robert Monroe’s cold-molded canoe (foreground) came from a half-mold that eventually resulted in the a 12.3 mold (object directly behind first canoe) which has been used since 1989 to produce dozens of offspring that reflect a wide raged of tastes and technology.

Above: The latest generation of employees and their Gougeon 12.3 canoes.Building a Gougeon 12.3 has become a rite of passage for new employees. 

The Gougeon 12.3 canoe represents several decades of experimentation by employees of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. Dozens have been built but no two are exactly alike. The evolution of the Gougeon 12.3 parallels our love of boating, passion for innovation and desire to build better boats—all of which contribute to the products we produce today.

Continue reading →