First M42R Catamaran Test-Session Floors DCB Performance Marine Team
Before leaving DCB Performance Marine headquarters last night ahead of this morning’s first test session for M42R catamaran No. 1, vice president of manufacturing Johnny Bauer assured his nervous DCB teammates that all would be well. Optimist that Bauer is, he wasn’t just cheerleading. He believed it. From lamination to rigging, the crew at the Phoenix-headquartered company had poured its formidable talents into the new 42-footer equipped with twin Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines for more than a year. Bauer had good reasons to believe in the finished product.
John Teague (standing), Tony Chiaramonte and the rest of the DCB Performance Marine test team couldn’t have been happier with the first M42R catamaran. All photos by Jeff Johnston.
Yet when he woke this morning and thought about the upcoming first sea-trial for the catamaran on Lake Pleasant, he felt twitchy. There were no guarantees that the thousands of man-hours invested in the project, which began with countless design meetings before Marine Concepts produced tooling for the cat, would pay off. Like DCB co-owners Tony Chiaramonte, Jeff Johnston and Paul Miller, as well as lead-rigger John Teague, he had the jitters.
“Yeah, I woke up nervous,” he said, then laughed.
In its first test-session today on Lake Pleasant, the catamaran topped out at 128 mph.
As did his teammates.
“I think all of us were up at 4:30 a.m. because we couldn’t sleep anymore,” Teague said. “A year of planning, design, execution and setup of a brand-new model came down to today.”
But their collective anxiety vanished the moment the 42-footer hit the water.
“It is the nicest piece of equipment I have ever been in,” said Teague, who unlike the rest of the team was experiencing bringing a new model to market for the first time. “It shows where the modern DCB is headed—to the top of the mountain. I think we have something special.”
On the flip side of Teague was Chiaramonte, who has been involved with every model DCB has created during the past 35 years. That didn’t translate to overconfidence, but he’d gone through the process a few times.
The new 42-footer boasts impeccable lines and styling.
“Today was a pretty freaking good day because this boat is amazing,” Chiaramonte said. “It is as good or better as anything we’ve done before. It kisses 7,000 pounds and yet it is agile as hell. I turned it hard, like racer-style around a pin, at 80 mph and it whipped right around. With four guys, 120 gallons of fuel and 36-inch-pitch propellers, it ran 128 mph out of the box. And we have more dialing in to do.
“The center of gravity is on the money,” he continued. “It is on plane at 18 mph with no bow-rise. I tried to get it to hop in the mid-range and I couldn’t.”
Chiaramonte paused, then laughed. “Yeah, as you can see I’m pretty stoked.”
Yet no one is more delighted than Bauer, who worked on the engine-development side with Mercury Marine and Mercury Racing as well as spearheading a new catamaran-line for Performance Powerboats. Bauer joined DCB a year ago, and as the new guy heading production the M42R was his baby. All eyes were on him, including those of relatively new investors/managing partners Craig and Kim Hargreaves.
It wasn’t that the unfailingly supportive couple made Bauer, or anyone else involved for that matter, particularly nervous. But like the rest of the team, he wanted to show them their investment in not just a new facility but the people behind the products was worthwhile.
For DCB’s Johnny Bauer, Tony Chiaramonte, John Teague and Jeff Johnston (behind the camera) today was as good as it gets in the boat-building business.
“I’m pretty darn ecstatic,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty darn blessed. And I have to offer kudos to the design team at Marine Concepts for absolutely nailing the waterline and swim step height on this model.”
When Bauer and the test-group returned to the factory late this morning, they gathered all of their fellow employees around the cat. He told them how the test session had gone and thanked them for their hard work, which began in the dog days of an Arizona summer a little more than a year ago.
“I wanted them to understand what all the long hours and weekend-work had created,” he said, his voice softening. “I wanted them to know what they had created. I couldn’t be more proud of this team or this boat.
“This isn’t just another DCB model,” he continued. “This is a world-class, outboard-powered catamaran. Once people start to experience it, they’re going to understand what this team did. The M42R is a true game-changer and a new standard-setter.”
Though SeaDek remains to be installed on the transom steps, the first DCB M42R catamaran is a decidedly finished product.
DCB M42R Development Story Series
DCB M42R Catamaran Update: Close To Testing
DCB M42R Catamaran Update: Out Of Post-Lamination And Off To Rigging
DCB M42R Catamaran Update—Interior Time
DCB M42R Catamaran Update—Hull-And-Deck Marriage No. 1
DCB M42R Catamaran Update: First Hull and Deck Taking Form
DCB Update—New M42R Cat Headed To Lamination, M37R Fleet Headed To Super Cat Fest
Driving The Schedule’ Paying Off For DCB M42R Catamaran Development
First DCB M42R Widebody Catamaran To Debut In 2024
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