Baby Virage update and make-over

[alaskastreamin]

About 20 years ago I made three 1/2 size Virages for my kids. They were painted to match the Virage I had at the time.
I made the decks and put on 9’ Boston Whaler hulls ( for safety reasons). Over the years, they got sold off and all left town.

Fast forward about 17 years , we have our ‘91 Virage in Washington and Caprice says, it would be cool if you could get one of the mini’s back so us girls could putt around while you boys go fast.

I tracked down one of the boats in Wrangell, AK. Left messages for owner to contact me. A couple months go by and I get a message from owner.

I buy it back in rough shape. Luckily a friend had his 85’ packer in Wrangell at the haul out facility getting work done.
The mini was brought over and hoisted on the back deck.
A few days later I met the boat at the dock and it was hoisted into the back of my pickup.

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[alaskastreamin]

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[alaskastreamin]

Once I got it in the shop ( I still lived in Alaska then), pulled the deck, and looked over the waterlogged hull. I was wondering if it was worth saving the Whaler hull or just making a new hull.
I decided to do both. That would save $$ in fiberglass and mold making , keeping the whalers transom, sides and part of the V bottom.

First, I cut and hot glued hi density urethane 1/4“ foam and formed up the sponsons. They were glassed to the hull and faired in.

I removed the inner liner and foam which left a super flimsy skin. I added a layer of 1708 to the inside to stiffen it up.
I then removed the portions of the whaler hull that my add in’s were covering so I could glass the insides and tie into the inner hull skin.

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[alaskastreamin]

With the inside skin “stabilized “, and I had several sheets of the 1/4” foam panels, I glassed in stringers and a floor.
I realized a flat floor wouldn’t work so I came up with a dropped center section for better leg room.
The lower floor drains into a narrow bilge area. The floor was glassed in and three gallons of pour foam was slowly poured in small batches.

A contoured seat cushion base was fabricated from the foam and fiberglassed to the floor. Little side rails were glassed in to hold personal stuff.

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[alaskastreamin]

Since my current Virage has a splashwell lelete as well as a 1-1/2” drop in the delete portion, I needed to do the same to the mini.

The splashwell was cut out and a mini “drop delete” was glassed in.

Both half’s were sanded down to the original white gel and was starting the re-gel process.

I had white and black on hand but had to order the blue colors.

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[alaskastreamin]

While waiting on the blue gel to arrive, I got a call from a fisherman friend saying he had a friend heading to Seattle in a 150’ packer and would bring my two boats there for free!!
The bummer was that they had to be at the fish plant the next morning.

Made a stand for the mini and bundled up the Glastron GT-150 working into the evening.
Next morning they were loaded on the packer.

Once it got to our Washington shop, it got rolled into a corner and put on the back burner.

When I finished the HST rebuild, I had extra gel coat additive and top coat that has a shelf life . So out it came, unloaded the inside and started to finish it.

Ironically, the gel I ordered , arrived a week after the mini had left.

Being flammable, I couldn’t mail or bring as luggage to Washington.

A year later a friend was moving to Seattle and we put the gel in one of his moving boxes.

I knew gel won’t last forever and it was already 3 years old so, another reason to get this done.

I sanded the previous gel down smooth and started masking off for the blues.

Being so small, it took as much time masking as the 20’ HST stripes!!

The medium blue had gelled in the unopened can and wasn’t usable. Thankfully, adding some dark blue to the light blue, I was able to match the medium blue. (If I’d thought this three years ago I could have saved $60 on a quart of gel. )

With my trusty $15 harbor freight spray gun and the tip drilled out to 2.0, the gel sprayed beautifully.

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[alaskastreamin]

When I was sewing up the Voyagers interior, I stitched up the mini’s interior. Much much nicer than the one 20 years ago!!

I tried to copy the full size Virage interior as best as possible.
The hard part was sewing together 1/2 size tuck and roll (3/4” ) is not fun!!!

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[alaskastreamin]

Today I got the light blue and the black sprayed on. I unmasked the rest for the white tomorrow .

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[alaskastreamin]

Spent an hour plus masking off everything I didn’t want white.
The white gel sprayed on great.

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[alaskastreamin]

Wet sanded the edges flat and dumped the last 3/4 gallon of clear on .

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