DCB Enamored With New M33R After First Round of Testing

While enjoying lunch at Pirate Cove Resort upriver from Lake Havasu City, Ariz., on the California side of the Colorado River, DCB Performance Boats’ Tony Chiaramonte answered his cell phone and used two words—one was an expletive, “in all caps,” he said—to describe the boat I was calling about: BLANK-ING INCREDIBLE. You can fill in the blank.

Powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines, the first M33R catamaran from DCB Performance Boats is going to be available for demo rides at several events across the country this year. All photos courtesy DCB

Chiaramonte was sitting in the restaurant staring at the company’s first M33R catamaran at the docks of the popular Moab, Calif., location. Sitting next to him were Mercury Racing’s Mike Griffiths and DCB’s Paul Miller. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear Chiaramonte’s smile through the phone.

“We’re going back to the Turtle (the dockside bar/restaurant at the Nautical Beachfront Resort on Lake Havasu) and going to do some demo rides this afternoon,” said Chiaramonte, who enjoyed dialing in the twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R-powered catamaran with Griffiths this week. “Earlier today we reached 120 mph at 7,000 rpm with a pair of 33-inch props and 1.75 gear ratios. The boat likes diameter. We tried four sets of props and the 33s hit the sweet spot. The boat runs really well—it never feels off kilter and it doesn’t porpoise. It’s very connected but it also feels light on its feet. It comes on plane fast and it comes off plane quick, too. The balance is great.

“The boat feels a lot bigger than the M28 and M29—it even feels bigger than the M31 and M35,” he continued., adding that the 32-foot, 10-inch boat has a 9-foot, 7-inch beam and weighs 5,000 pounds. “It rides really nice. I can’t wait to show it off and give as many demo rides as possible this summer. That’s why we built this one.”

Chiaramonte, who said interested customers should call him to set up a ride, has a pretty full slate this year starting with the Lake Havasu Boat Show early next month followed by the Desert Storm Poker Run two weeks later—he’s expecting to have the second M33R at the Lake Havasu event.

Check out the slideshow above for more images of DCB’s first M33R cat.

He’s also got the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run in Louisiana on the schedule followed by the Lake Powell (Ariz.) Spring Run in June, the Texas Outlaw Challenge at the end of June, the Missouri-based Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in August, the Lake Cumberland (Ky.) Poker Run in September, the Lake Powell Challenge in mid-September and of course the annual DCB Regatta at the end of September in Lake Havasu.

Editor’s note: Look for a story on the second M33R coming from DCB as well as first-impression story on the demo boat following the Desert Storm Poker Run.

DCB Enamored With New M33R After First Round of Testing

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