In the 1930s chemists in Switzerland and Ohio independently developed an unusual compound: gooey resin mixed with a hardener that would “cure” into a strong, stable, chemical- and water-resistant, long-chain polymer. This “epoxy” was lovely stuff, useful for many years in tiny dentistry and large commercial applications.
Brothers Jan, Meade, and Joel Gougeon were not particularly interested in chemistry. They raced iceboats. Their obsessions were ice and speed. Their sailing season was in the depth of winter, when the lakes and rivers of Michigan froze hard.
Iceboat racing was a rich man’s pastime down on New York’s Hudson River. Big spidery gaff rigs riding on a few square inches of blade edge rode winter winds at thrilling speeds. Most of the big estates along the Hudson—including Springwood, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home—hauled elegant ice yachts out onto the frozen river every winter. One popular outing was racing the Albany Express train upriver. With a generous wind, the iceboats won, pushing speeds faster than any form of human locomotion at the time, up to 100 miles per hour. The iceboat speed record from 1938 still stands at 143 miles per hour.