22nd – 23rd February 2025
RYA Dinghy Show
The RYA Dinghy Show features dinghy sailing, wingsurfing, foiling, and paddleboarding. It’s a great opportunity to discover the latest marine technology and connect with the team at WEST SYSTEM.
18th-26th January 2025
Boot Düsseldorf
WEST SYSTEM exhibits alongside the German Distributor Vonderlinden at the world’s largest yacht and watersports show, boot Düsseldorf. It features a wide range of water sports, including sailing, motor boating, diving, surfing, skimboarding, kite surfing, stand up paddling, and canoeing.
18th – 23rd September 2025
Genoa International Boat Show
WEST SYSTEM attends the ‘Genoa International Boat Show’ alongside the Italian Distributor WS Marine. The event ‘is a global benchmark for the yachting industry. It provides a unique opportunity to compare and contrast institutional, technological, and market trends on an international scale.
19th – 21st November 2024
METS (Marine Equipment Trade Show)
METSTRADE, the world’s largest and only truly international B2B exhibition for the leisure marine industry, is held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This event brings together global leaders, cutting-edge technology, and unmatched networking opportunities. Explore pavilions for Superyachts, Marinas & Yards, Construction Materials, Start-ups, and Foiling. WEST SYSTEM showcases high-performance epoxy solutions.
23rd – 28th September 2025
La Rochelle Boat Show
Le Grand Pavois La Rochelle is a major boating event held in France. With 800 international brands from 33 different countries and 700 boats on display, it offers a wide range of boats and marine products. Discover the latest trends in boating and connect with industry experts.
13th – 22nd September 2024
SIBS (Southampton International Boat Show)
The Southampton International Boat Show is a major event for the marine industry. WEST SYSTEM ran mini-masterclasses that shared the team’s specialist knowledge in getting the best out of the WEST SYSTEM range, how to use it, and what to use it for, and attendees learned valuable tips and tricks from industry experts.
21st – 22nd September 2024
Shearwater Catamaran Nationals
WEST SYSTEM sponsored the ‘Shearwater Catamaran’ event, born from the simple act of lashing two canoes together, has become the world’s most family-friendly catamaran racing class.
10 -15th September 2024
Cannes Yachting Festival 2024
The Cannes Yachting Festival 2024 was a major event in the yachting world, taking place in Cannes, France, from September 10th to 15th, 2024. It featured a wide range of yachts, including motor yachts, superyachts, catamarans, and sailing yachts. The event was held in two ports: the Vieux Port and Port Canto.
10th – 16th August 2024
GP14 World Championships
The GP14 World Championships is a prestigious sailing event that brings together top competitors from around the globe. Held annually, this competition showcases the skill and determination of sailors in the GP14 dinghy class. The 2024 World Championships took place in Pwllheli, Wales, where sailors battled it out in challenging conditions to claim the title of World Champion.
27th July – 9th August 2024
Cadet World Championship
Proud sponsors of the 57th Cadet World Championship in the naval city of Plymouth, Devon. The Cadet World Championship are international sailing regattas in the Cadet class organised by the International Sailing Federation and the International Cadet Class Association.
15th – 22nd June 2024
Spirit Yachts Regatta
WEST SYSTEM was thrilled to sponsor the Spirit Yachts in partnership with Locate Guernsey. The regatta hosted a sequence of six races planned for high velocity, IRC rated competition racing with yachts varying in size from 37ft to beyond 100ft. A hearty congratulations to the overall winner, Spirit C72 Gwenhyfar II!
17th – 19th May 2024
Cowes Spring Classics – Photographer Credit – Chris Brown
We are proud sponsors of the Cowes Spring Classics, a prestigious regatta celebrating classic yachting. Since its inception in 2018, it has featured a wide array of pre-1970 yachts, including Cruisers & Cruiser Racers, Affordable Classic Cruisers around 25ft, Gaff Rigged Yachts & Pilot Cutters, Day Boats & Raters, Classic Metre Yachts, and Modern Spirit of Tradition Yachts. Non-racing Yachts and Motorboats are also welcomed.
Original WEST SYSTEM Technical Manual
In 1972, we introduced the first WEST SYSTEM Technical Manual (now known as the WEST SYSTEM User Manual & Product Guide, and available in 18 languages) to help our customers understand our products, which were like none other on the market. We could not have known then what an important part of our history this helpful booklet would become. We expanded the manual over the next several years, focusing on answers to questions our customers commonly asked. We later published other, more project-specific manuals, including Wooden Boat Restoration & Repair and Fibreglass Boat Repair and Maintenance. We also wrote The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction, a definitive work on cold-moulded construction with wood and WEST SYSTEM materials, now in its fifth edition.
The key to our customers’ success with these products was a dedicated technical staff offering one-on-one support by phone, mail, and in person, combined with our growing library of informative publications. Satisfied customers made the WEST SYSTEM part of our business grow steadily over the years. Our technical support model is similar today but with the added modern conveniences of email, the internet, and of course our new website featuring instructional videos and PDFs of all of our manuals.
The growing demands of our epoxy business made it difficult to continue our one-off and production boat-building operations. We discontinued building boats in 1993, but the boat shop we began in long ago is still in operation. Jan and I have come full circle. I like to think we “successed” our way back to the boat shop, where we build our own boats for the pleasure of it and are still discovering new things about processes and materials. Jan is finishing up a 40′ trailer-able, self-righting catamaran he hopes to launch this summer. I have been playing with small boats, mostly sailing canoes. And of course, we are both still into iceboats, our first love.
We supposedly are retired, but I think we are still doing research and development, just as we did in the years leading up to the introduction of WEST SYSTEM products.—From How WEST SYSTEM Products Got Their Start by Meade Gougeon, Epoxyworks 28.