We partied like it was 1969. The occasion was the 40th (already!) anniversary of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. of Bay City, Michigan. Most of us know them as the purveyors of WEST System, once known as Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique. Many others know them as boatbuilding pioneers. I know them — and I am blessed –as both.
Background and disclaimer. In 1969 (their first year) , I was a struggling and fledgling yacht designer. I was halfway through my correspondence course with (then) Yacht Design Institute, or perhaps that was a few years later. No, right — then I was taking Westlawn, but switched over to YDI in.. 1973, I think. Those halcyon days before computers and CAD.
(Aside: I would have been a great yacht designer if I’d ever mastered hand-lettering. This is true too today, but only because I haven’t made the switch to CAD. My lettering skills vanished after age 6, if they ever existed. They’re even worse today.)
So, the Gougeon Brothers in 1969, when they began, were building DN ice boats and, later, Tornadoes. I didn’t learn of their accomplishments until the early ’70s. My friend Mitchell and I would pour over everything we could read in the boating press. Yachting, Sea Spray, Seahorse magazines and others then, and — especially — AYRS. We debated the lines of RUNNING TIDE (from S&S), RED ROOSTER (Dick Carter), FUN (Laurie Davidson) and so many others, and what was up and coming in sailing yacht design.
It might have been AYRS, but most especially it was WoodenBoat Issue #16, when Meade Gougeon wrote about one of my favorite boats of all time, GOLDEN DAZY. This was the first boat to my knowledge that combined strip-planking and cold-molding. I was halfway through designing one of the first (and likely the first) US IOR Mini-Tonners. Once I’d read the article, I adapted her construction to that of GOLDEN DAZY. The rest would have been history.. had my feeble efforts led to a better boat. But her failures were all of my own making. Nonetheless, I still consider her a seminal breakthrough. Too bad she came out the same year as the J24. Of course my friend Mitchell had hull #3 of that design, and he trounced me resoundingly.
Jon Wilson and WoodenBoat picked me up out of the gutter in 1987 and gave me a job and a career. It was that same year that I met Meade at IMTEC, then the dominant force in marine trade shows. Meade and I took turns designing amazing trapeze dinghies on paper cocktail napkins in some nondescript Chicago restaurant.
And so began the second generation of my love affair with Meade. And I mean that only in the sense of the deepest admiration.
I was so happy and honored to be invited to the Gougeon Brothers’ 40th anniversary the weekend before last. I knew we had two dinner invitations for the nights of Friday and Saturday. My dear friends Helge and Taco from von der Linden GmBh in Germany — WEST System distributors — were staying at the same hotel as I was, and convinced me we should visit the the G Brothers’ shop the morning of Friday, long before the parties. We did, and to my amazement, I got to spend a majority of the next two days with Meade and his brother Jan. An additional bonus was that we got to go sailing aboard Meade’s ADAGIO, his 30 year-old trimaran that he makes more perfect with each year. We traveled to her aboard Jan’s Gougemaran.
So much more is going on there, but I will wait for Dan Spurr of Professional BoatBuilder to put into context in a future article. We’ll reprint it here for everyone’s knowledge.
(Our first night of parties was aboard a river cruiseboat. The first person to greet me aboard was Kern Hendricks of System Three. So amazing that, in our small industry, some competitors can learn how to share a marketplace.)
At both parties, I was able to re-meet or meet anew so many incredible people. Hugh and Ian who build sailing canoes for the Brothers. WEST System distributors from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Germany, and the rest of the world. Especially the WEST System/ProSet people who make it work every day: Meade, Jan, Joel, Rob, Alan, Grace, Joe, Mike, JR, Grant, Kris and so many more.
I’m not gifted enough to describe how incredible this was. The same way I failed as a yacht designer because of lettering. Give me one word and I would say: ”Stunning.”
Meade, Tom Hill, and I were talking about WEST System-built boats. I posited that Tom has built more WEST System boats than anyone (I think Tom said 235 to date). At first, Meade argued, based on their production-builds of DNs. The next I knew, Meade conceded, and wrapped his arms around Tom.
Incredible pyrotechnics were exploding above us, and I wondered:
This is the meaning, and the glory of life. How does it get any better?
Maybe, sometime, I will tell you about the rest of the party(-ies).
Thanks so much, G Bros, for making me your own. As we are, together.
