Garrison Winthorp of Wilmington, North Carolina has seen his fair share of damaging storms.  Since retiring from Grumman Aerospace and moving to Wilmington in 1985, the frequency and intensity of hurricanes has increased significantly.  In the last 20 years, he has lost several large trees on his property with a few of them coming through the roof of his house.  His roof has been “blown off and replaced 5 times and he has replaced too many windows to count."

Even with plywood covering the windows, flying debris has penetrated the plywood to totally destroy the window and allow wind, water and debris into the house leaving a terrible, costly mess to clean up.  Plywood is also good for one hurricane only, absorbing water and distorting to the point where it no longer seals the window. 

During Hurricane Bonnie in 1998, Mr. Winthorp lost 3 windows to flying branches and other debris penetrating his plywood covers and he decided that there must be a better way.

During his years with Grumman, Mr. Winthorp came to know different Smooth-On products used for mold making and casting for a variety of applications.  He decided to mold and cast a window shield out of a Smooth-On impact resistant resin called Smooth-Cast® 61D.  He tried it on a small scale at first and was impressed enough to cast several larger panels that withstood the fury of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 with winds of 122 mph and 20 inches (40 cm) of rain.  Mr. Winthorp states that, "the panels have been banged and scratched up but have never been punctured by rocks, branches or other stuff. At the start they were a lot more expensive to make than plywood, but have paid for themselves many times over because I only had to make them once. They've seen a lot of storms since Floyd and are still going strong."  He has since made panels for his friends and relatives.

Mr. Winthorp chronicled how he made his Smooth-Cast® 61D panels with help from sons Arthur and Winston who installed a new panels on his mother's house.