The Canadian Blood Brothers Of DCB

Near the end of last Saturday’s DCB Performance Marine Grand Opening celebration in Phoenix, Brad Macaulay pulled me aside. Earlier that day, I had interviewed the gregarious Canadian who has owned four DCB catamarans since 2011 on camera for his perspective on the company’s move from its longtime home in El Cajon, Calif., to its shiny new digs in Phoenix. But when I asked him about fellow Canadian Rob Blair, the former DCB business owner who died in a helicopter accident earlier this month, Macaulay stopped me.

Kim Hargreaves, Brad Macaulay, Tony Chiaramonte and Craig Hargreaves enjoyed a moment during last Saturday’s DCB Performance Marine Grand Opening celebration.

“I can’t talk about Rob now, at least for a video,” he said quietly.

I told him I understood. Macaulay and Blair became dear friends in 2011 when Blair purchased the company and Macaulay had a new boat in the works. Blair had died just a week before his friend arrived in Phoenix for the DCB event.

Now that the camera was gone, Macaulay wanted to talk for a minute about his friend. Both men had homes on the shores of Shuswap Lake, they logged thousands of hours boating together there and on Colorado River-fed lakes in the United States.

I ask Macaulay about his friendship with Blair. His answers came slowly and deliberately, with the kind of long pauses strong, grown men often use to control emotions.

“Rob was very forthright with me,” he said. “He trusted me. You know, our homes on the Shuswap (a lake in British Columbia) were so close that it took longer to text him than it did for me to put on my PFD, pull up my fenders and take my boat to his place to have coffee with him. Later in the day, we’d usually go cruising in one of my boats to Finn’s.

“During the summer, I would phone him twice a week, guaranteed,” he added, his big voice down to a whisper. “His daughter texted me after he died. She said, ‘My dad loved you like you were his brother.’”

Though Macaulay lost his best friend this month, he will never lose his love and appreciation for the company Blair once owned.

“I think Rob absolutely would have appreciated the legacy of DCB and the people of DCB being carried on here,” he explained. “What they were able to do in El Cajon was amazing. This place is like a Ferrari dealership. As I said earlier, my hat is off to Craig and Kim Hargreaves for keeping the DCB legacy alive.

“I built four DCBs,” he added. “So many of the people here, like Paul and Tony and Tito and Deron have been to my place on the lake—Tony had his whole family there,” he continued. “I absolutely adore what is going on here for the future of all those guys. And the product? The product is second to none.”