Unique Custom Marine Vault Putting Finishing Touches On Busy Year – Speed on the Water
Up until last month, it had been close to a year since I had caught up with a longtime friend in the performance boat industry, Dave DeLezenne. Now—as in today—DeLezenne, who owns a relatively new, 25,000-square-foot, full-service marine facility in Pompano Beach, Fla., featuring boat storage and transport called Unique Custom Marine Vault, is being tasked with handling one of the coolest items ever donated for the Speedonthewater.com Key West Bash charity auction right in the middle of maybe the most important week for his business, the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run.
Between storage, service and various other performance boat projects, Unique Custom Marine Vault in Pompano Beach, Fla., is busier than ever. Photos courtesy Dave DeLezenne
Thanks Dave—thank you for taking the radical carbon-fiber card table (below) hand-crafted by the generous team at DCB Performance Marine in Arizona the final step of the way from South Florida to Key West in time for Thursday night’s bash at Pickles Pub’s Sandbar on Greene Street. Fortunately Southern California’s Frankie Salvatore was able to stash it in the rig towing his DCB M37R Widebody catamaran from Lake Havasu City, Ariz., to Florida for his first Key West Poker Run. Motivated by completing his first offshore run in late September when he drove his new-to-him 37-footer powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R engines in the Pacific Ocean during the Catalina Fun Run, Salvatore decided to make the trek across the country for the granddaddy of all poker runs.
Luckily South Florida-based DCB owner Greg Harris, who also happens to be on the Key West Bash planning committee, had already set Salvatore up with Unique Custom Marine Vault to get him ready for the event, so Tuesday afternoon’s transition went smooth.
But back to catching up with DeLezenne and all the cool stuff he’s been up to with his new business—well not-so-new being that he started it a little more than two years ago and has developed it into South Florida’s one-stop shop for performance boaters. In fact, Unique Custom Marine Vault has handled a couple of cool projects with Florida Powerboat Club president Stu Jones and comes highly recommended by the club founder for its storage, concierge service, maintenance, fiberglass repair, paintwork and more.
DeLezenne said his team is overseeing seven boats in the poker run—three Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats center consoles and three MTI-V 50 center consoles and one 52-foot MTI catamaran—as well as running the company’s twin 450R-powered 32-foot Sunsation Powerboats center console in Wednesday’s 180-mile jaunt from Miami to Key West.
“We’re all set for tomorrow—Frankie’s DCB is getting detailed as we speak and the other boats are ready to roll,” DeLezenne said on Tuesday evening. “This is going to be a fun week. We can’t wait to see everyone.”
Previously DeLezenne explained that this year has been a home run for the business, and that the level of hardware coming in and out of the facility has been top-notch. He’s not joking. Everything from wave-crushing Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats and Chief Powerboats V-bottoms and Cigarette Racing Team center consoles and sportboats to outboard- and inboard-powered Skater Powerboats catamarans and cruisers from Formula Boats. As DeLezenne, who has an extensive background from working with manufacturers, dealers, battery companies and even offshore race teams, can attest, having the know-how to deal with experienced—and not-so-experienced—performance boaters will go a long way in keeping customers happy and engaged.
Check out the slideshow above for more images from Unique Custom Marine Vault.
“We have more going on here than I expected two years ago when it was mainly storage and service,” DeLezenne said. “We started doing repairs, performance modifications and paint corrections and it grew from there. Now we’re taking on complete paintjobs, full conversions and electronics installations. We even started manufacturing our own trailers; they’re called Synergy Trailers and we’re pretty proud of them.”
Trailers, huh Dave? You don’t say. Not only do I have my next story to work on for DeLezenne and Unique Custom Marine Vault, but I might have an idea for an auction item for the 2024 Key West Bash.
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