In 1969, Meade Gougeon and his younger brother Jan founded Gougeon Brothers' Boatworks to build iceboats. These lightweight, sail-powered vessels were built of wood laminated with epoxy. By 1973, the company was the largest builder of iceboats in the country. The company rapidly expanded its business into other boat building efforts. Using epoxy to build the iceboats was a natural choice since they had been using epoxy as an adhesive on many boat projects for the previous 10 years. Meade and Jan were first introduced to epoxy resins in 1958, by Vic Carpenter of Superior Sailboats in Montrose, Michigan. Vic was one of the earliest users of epoxy resins as a structural adhesive for wooden boats. He learned about epoxy resins from a pattern maker. At that time, epoxy had just made an entrance into the pattern-making industry, where it was us Click for details>>
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