Even Madder Props—DCB Creates M37R Artwork For Second-Time Owners

Of all the DCB Performance Marine customers who celebrated the custom high-performance catamaran builder’s open house in mid-January, none were more thrilled to be there than Greg Harris and Yvonne Aleman. They traveled from South Florida to Phoenix to make it, a hefty trek for a one-day event.

But they’d have been there even if DCB hadn’t been building a new M37R Widebody catamaran for them—that’s just how much they love Tony Chiaramonte, Jeff Johnston, Paul Miller and the entire DCB team.

Greg Harris and Yvonne Aleman aren’t just grateful for their new DCB M37R catamaran—they’re grateful to be members of the DCB customer-family.

Still, being able to ogle their 37-footer in progress was a nice bonus for the longtime couple. It made them that much more grateful to be celebrating the new Arizona facility with their fellow devoted members of the DCB customer-family.

“It’s so overwhelming to know that they have what they truly deserve,” Aleman said in the Speed On The Water/Scapyard Media documentary video—captured during the open-house event—in reference to the company’s new facility. “It’s amazing.”

The finished product sitting on its new trailer from CTS Custom Trailers.

Dubbed Mad Props just like their first M37R and powered by Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines, the new 500R outboard-equipped version will see its first event-action this weekend at the inaugural Bago Big Bet event in Oshkosh, Wis. The couple is traveling to the event today and its boat is arriving on its new trailer from Iowa-based CTS Custom Trailers.

For Aleman and Harris, the design process for Mad Props started shortly after they took delivery of the first Mad Props M37R in 2022. A primary issue was color. Aleman wanted to integrate a shade of pink into the gelcoat graphics package but she was certain Harris wouldn’t go for it. So instead she pitched “lilac.”

“Greg said ‘No way’ to that three times,” she said, then laughed. “It started at the 2022 Hartwell Lake Charity Run in South Carolina and it went on for a year.

“So we were at the Desert Storm Poker Run in 2023 without our boat and having another big fight about it,” she recalled. “And suddenly Greg says, ‘What about pink?’”

Aleman couldn’t believe her ears. She knew she needed to get his comment on the record, so she called Johnston and had him join them to witness and sign off on their final color palette.

Like Aleman and Harris, DCB sweats the details.

“The grays are different, too,” Harris explained. “We wanted something cooler than the gray on our last boat, so half is ‘chalk’ gray and the other half is Nardo gray, which is darker. All of the other colors run through the Nardo gray so you can still walk on the chalk gray when it’s hot out.”

The overall graphic design for Mad Props is significantly different as well.

“We went for longer and more slender lines with a swoosh that goes from bow to stern without crossing the deck,” Aleman said. “The new boat looks much sleeker than our first one.”

The hues of Mad Props were inspired by those found in the 1980s “Miami Vice” television show that first inspired Harris to get into high-performance boating.

“We were going for ‘modernized Miami retro,’” Harris quipped, then chuckled again. “I told Yvonne I was going to call it ‘Vice City.’ She just gave me the evil eye.

“But we did have stickers made that say, ‘DCB Vice City,” he added.

To complement the 37-footer’s softer exterior lines, the couple had the company create a softer interior look.

“The seats have an hourglass design and there are soft lines in all three types of stitching,” Aleman explained. “We definitely drove (DCB interior man) Raul Martinez freaking crazy. He had to hand-draw the interior.”

Aleman paused for a moment. “We really tested DCB on the whole ‘custom’ boat-building thing,” she added.

Johnny Bauer, DCB’s vice president of production, will join them in the cockpit for all this weekend’s activities on Lake Winnebago. A former employee of Fond du Lac, Wis.-headquartered Mercury Racing and Mercury Marine, Bauer knows the waterway.

“I’m going back to my old stomping grounds,” Bauer said in a previous speedonthewater.com story. “And it’s going to be really fun to show the DCB owners in the Bago Big Bet including Kiran Pinisetti and Kelly O’Hara in Cowboy & Indian around my home-water.”

With Bauer representing the brand this weekend in Wisconsin, Johnston and Chiaramonte can stay put at DCB headquarters and keep working with their team on current builds.

“We’re busy always,” said Johnston, the president of the company. “But it’s always a pleasure to see a new build go out there to people who are as passionate about DCB and high-performance boating in general as Greg and Yvonne. We are blessed to have them in the DCB family.”

Captured here in Arizona, the 37-footer will turn heads this weekend on Lake Winnebago.

A boat-operating duo, Harris throttles and Aleman drives. They will arrive at the Bago Big Bet with exactly 45 minutes of seat-time in their new beauty, which doesn’t concern them in the least. After years of splitting those duties, they are completely in sync in the cockpit.

“We ran it in Arizona mostly just to feel the difference with the 500Rs,” Aleman said. “It was just like being in our old boat with more performance at the midrange. I said to Greg, ‘Are we going to keep going in circles?’ and he said, ‘No. We’re done.’”

For Aleman and Harris, more seat-time is two days away.