Tag Archives: Robert Monroe

Golden Day 1976

Looking Back on Epoxy Technology

How WEST SYSTEM® Products Got Their Start

By Meade Gougeon — GBI Founder
Epoxyworks 28

Cover Photo: Top image – First GBI crew building GOLDEN DAZY in the early ’70s. Bottom image – The Gougeon Brothers, Inc. team in 2008.

 

2009 was the 40th Anniversary of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. 1969 marked a point in the Gougeon brothers’ careers when they applied all they had learned about wooden structures and epoxy technology to manufacture, for the first time, a product utilizing wood/epoxy composite construction. The full story of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. begins long before that date and is sure to continue well into the next 40 years.

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Gougeon 12.3 canoes on display.

The Gougeon 12.3 Canoe

By Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor
Epoxyworks 29

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.

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A Temporary Shelter

By Robert H. Monroe

My garage was full of projects in various states of completion or abandonment. The sailboat was in the driveway, cocooned in a tarp. I had a desperate need to build a kayak. The neighbors were much too complacent. The time was right to build a blue tarp shelter.

I decided to build a 32’ x 14’ shelter so I could house the 25’ sailboat plus have room for the kayak project. The layout suggested bents or frames every 4’. The design developed into a standardized frame of two 10’ lengths of 1″-diameter conduit for rafters and half-lengths (5’) of conduit for the uprights. Conduit connectors would hold the pieces together. I initially considered ¾” diameter conduit but decided it was not stiff enough for the job. Continue reading →