DCB Pumped For Sterndrive 45-Foot Cat—And More—As Tooling Nears Completion
The vice president manufacturing for DCB Performance Marine in Phoenix, Johnny Bauer can’t hide his enthusiasm for the entire process of bringing a new model to market. And as a card-carrying member of the heart-sleeve club, he’s too smart enough to even try. Bauer knows attempts to mute his joy are futile.
So he tends to walk around the DCB plant with fire in his eyes and a semi-scary grin on his face.
With the deck-plug for the DCB M45 Widebody catamaran complete, a deck mold will soon follow.
Trust me. I’ve seen this more than once. I followed Bauer around the DCB production floor like a puppy a few times during the build of the M42R catamaran, and I’ll follow him a few times more as the sterndrive-powered M45R Widebody catamaran evolves.
Which means I’ll be back in Arizona in early March. The plug for the deck tooling is done thanks to Marine Concepts of Sarasota, Fla., and a mold will be completed and delivered shortly. Since the M45 Widebody hull was derived from that of the M42R, the hull mold is already complete.
“I was at Marine Concepts on December 20 to give the M45 deck-plug my blessing and it was coming along great,” Bauer recalled. “I happened to be down there for another project and they were finishing up the plug. I can’t say enough about the professionalism of Marine Concepts. They’re just incredible.”
Another project? DCB just finished its 42-footer in December, is working on the sterndrive 45-footer and—just for fun—is relocating to its second Phoenix facility in two years. Another freaking project?
I had to ask.
Bauer laughed. “I’m not even talking about the next project right now.”
DCB managing partner Craig Hargreaves is equally stoked on the new 45-footer and—at least for the moment—equally mum on the next DCB project follow.
The first 45-footer will boast potent sterndrive power in the form of Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines.
“We’re building the first M45 Widebody as a demo boat and it should be done in July,” he said. “It will be powered by Mercury Racing 1550/1350s, but standard power will be 1100s.
“As for the other project, we can talk about that later,” he added, then chuckled. “But let’s just say it’s something no one in the market has paid attention to in a while.”
I kept gently pushing. I used all my reporter charm and persuasion. When those tools failed, I resorted to begging.
Finally, their will to withhold collapsed like a wet taco.
Another new model.
Stay tuned.
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