DCB Performance Marine Moving Operations
A year ago this month, DCB Performance Marine hosted an open-house at its then-new 27,000-square-foot facility in Phoenix. There was cause for celebration, as the company had spent more than 30 years building exquisite catamarans in a cramped and inefficient facility in El Cajon, Calif. At last, the DCB team had a physical plant worthy of the boats built within its walls.
The DCB team is hoping to be moved into its new digs by June. All facility photos by Johnny Bauer.
Now the company is on the move again. Yet rather than hauling molds, engines, equipment materials and more 350 miles from Southern California to Arizona, it literally is moving “down the street” to another building owned by managing partners Craig and Kim Hargreaves.
DCB’s new 42,000-square-foot home will add more production space, of course. And that’s just one of the advantages of making the move.
“This facility has a lot more grade-height roll-up doors and fewer floor-to-ceiling columns inside,” Craig Hargreaves explained. “It’s also a rectangular building, which will enable us to create more efficient production flow. Our current building is square.”
The move will add 15,000 square feet to the company’s manufacturing footprint.
The rectangular building will enable DCB to create what vice-president of manufacturing Johnny Bauer called a “racetrack system” similar that used by Mercury Racing, where he spent a significant portion of his career before moving to the boat-manufacturing side of the industry several years ago.
“Each boat does ‘a lap’ inside the plant and stops at each station,” he explained.
Though Hargreaves initially wanted to move the larger Phoenix space, which he also owns, it was occupied at the time by another tenant. During the DCB Owners Regatta in September 2024, the tenant notified him that he was departing from the property. So the space became available.
The space is wide open and empty now, but DCB will have no trouble filling it.
Hargreaves knew another move would be asking a lot of his crew, despite the shorter distance involved. He needed the team to buy into the advantages of what rigging department manager John Teague described as “short-term pain for long-term gain.”
“On Monday after the regatta, I loaded up the guys and took them to the new place,” Hargreaves recalled. “I told them, ‘I know we just moved, but just let me show it to you.’
DCB’s current and future locations are on the same street in Phoenix.
“I could see the wheels turning in (DCB general manager) Paul Miller’s head,” he continued. “When we got back to DCB, he made this really good cardboard-layout model of what the new place would look like once we moved in.”
With 15,000 more square feet to play with, DCB will add a third spray-booth at the new plant. The booth has already been ordered, and the move has begun. The goal is to be completely moved in by June with “minimal disruption to the current production schedule,” Hargreaves said.
“I don’t think the move will create any significant delays,” he added.
No one at DCB is more pleased with the new space, despite the formidable task ahead, than Teague.
“The physical work-flow pattern will be more logical and lend itself to better efficiency,” he said. “All spray-booths will be inside so pre- and post-lamination gelcoat work will be temperature-controlled, more predictable and with better quality control.
Craig and Kim Hargreaves learned the new space would be open during the 2024 DCB Owners Regatta. Photo by Tom Leigh copyright Tommy Gun Images.
“Plus, there will be more space inside for more boats to stay at the facility,” he continued. “The boats are getting larger—I need space to double-stack finished boats and major upgrade projects. Currently, I have to hold off incoming work because we are out of floor-space.”
Added Hargreaves with a chuckle, “Once we are done, we are going to schedule another open-house party. We are going to call it, ‘DCB 3.1.’”
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