This story shows that if you're in the wrap business, it pays to wrap your personal and business vehicles with your shop's graphics and contact information. Rod Voegele is President of GatorWraps and has been in the wrap industry for several years. His Cadillac Escalade, decked out in GatorWraps graphics and contact information, helped him gain his most unique and possibly most important client ever.

A couple months ago, Rod received a call from Chris Welsh, an explorer and the chief pilot of Virgin Oceanic, with the opportunity to wrap the Virgin Oceanic submarine and its docking station – a 125 foot long racing catamaran, Cheyenne, that was owned by adventurer Steve Fossett. Welsh had seen Rod's wrapped Escalade around Newport Beach – the city where they both live. The project was top secret until it was unveiled on April 5 at a packed press conference at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. 

More than 1,200 square feet of Avery MPI 1005 Supercast Easy Apply RS was printed and used for a full wrap on the custom-designed submarine and catamaran, which has a 13 foot Virgin logo and 50 foot stern graphic featuring the Virgin Oceanic website. DOL 1360 Gloss overlaminate was used to protect the graphics. 

"This was an amazing project to be able to participate in and called for top of the line materials. The Avery Supercast and DOL overlaminate films were the perfect materials for the catamaran's graphics and the submarine wrap," said Voegele. "The films adhered superbly to the surfaces and easily conformed to the curves of both vessels."

Welsh and Branson will pilot the one-man submarine into the five deepest trenches in the ocean. Welsh is expected to make the first descent later this year into the Mariana in the Pacific, a depth of 36,000 feet and deeper than anyone has ever gone. More details on the mission and exploration of Virgin Oceanic are available athttp://www.virginoceanic.com.