DCB Goes Coast To Coast With Second Mercury Racing 450R-Powered M33R Delivery

An avid performance-boating enthusiast who started waterskiing competitively when he was 14 years old, Scott James lives in Greer, S.C. He typically boats on Hartwell Lake in his ride of choice—a Fountain Powerboats 35 Executioner he purchased in 2006 or a MasterCraft towboat. But now that James has a new DCB Performance Boats M33R catamaran powered by two Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines in his stable, his other fun boats are less likely to see much action.

South Carolina’s Scott James could not be happier with his new DCB M33R Widebody (click image to enlarge), which is his first catamaran. Photos courtesy/copyright Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images.

James and his wife, Monica, took delivery of a new DCB M33R Widebody catamaran—the second 33-footer to be equipped with Mercury Racing 450R outboards—this week in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He dubbed the boat Coast to Coast.

“It’s reflective of a few things—our lifestyle, as we travel a lot from coast to coast, and an East Coast guy buying a West Coast boat,” he said. “And Coast to Coast actually is one of my favorite Scorpions song.”

Delivered by the El Cajon, Calif., custom boat company on a double-axle trailer from Extreme Custom Trailers, the 33-footer is powered by a pair of Mercury Racing 450R outboards mounted on STR X-Act brackets. DCB constructed the carbon-fiber and Kevlar, balsa-cored cat using the Vacuum-Infusion Resin process. The half-capped 33-footer is dressed in colorful Phase III gelcoat graphics.

“It’s a little different than a lot of West Coast boats that have been done with darker colors,” James said. “I wanted to go with bright, summer-like colors.”

Top speed is estimated to be 125 mph. But for James, that’s just one part of the cat’s appeal.

James and DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte put the 33-footer, the owner’s first catamaran, through its paces today.

“It’s an awesome boat and the 450Rs are killer—the acceleration is out of this world,” said James. “I have driven the same boat with (Mercury Racing) 400s and there’s a huge difference in acceleration and top end. It’s smooth-running at any speed, and it carves turns.

“I already feel very comfortable with the boat,” he continued. “You can pretty much set it and forget. It doesn’t require a lot of trim input. It doesn’t want to bite you or anything. We’re going to do some saltwater running this summer and it is fully capable of running in bigger water than we saw in Lake Havasu. That was no challenge for it.”

The cat’s helm station was set up in contemporary “glass-cockpit style” with three Garmin 8612 GPS units and a five-inch Mercury Vessel View monitor, all of which are integrated with boat’s C-Zone system. To keep rear bench passengers up to speed, so to speak, a Garmin GMi20 unit is mounted in the back of the headrest of the driver and co-pilot buckets. A Dual Garmin VIRB HD camera system is mounted to the center windshield strut.

James opted for several popular DCB “packages” for his new ride, including a six-person intercom system with VHF boat-to-boat communication called “the DCB channel” and an Interior Rigid LED cockpit light package with mood lights, courtesy lights and cupholder lights in the cockpit and underwater lighting at the transom and in the tunnel. For tunes, he went with DCB’s Stage III stereo system, which features a Fusion head unit, JL Audio amplifiers, 10 JL Audio M6 midrange LED speakers and two 12-inch JL Audio W3 subwoofers.

Knowing that people will swim from the boat, he ordered the M33R with a billet foot shower and swim step. The swim step is surfaced with SeaDek.

James plans to run Coast To Coast in several events this season outside of his home-water, including the Florida Powerboat Club’s Key West happening this spring and—later in the season—the outfit’s Tampa Bay Poker Run. But for the moment, he’s just happy to be bringing the 33-footer back to South Carolina.

Fit, finish and attention to detail in the latest M33R are up to the company’s sky-high standards.

“The entire build experience with DCB was just incredible,” he said. “We went back and forth with emails. They’d send me pictures with questions and I sent them answers. Cross-country or not, it didn’t matter. The process was very interactive.

“Tony, Jeff Johnston and the rest of the team at DCB really know how to build a boat,” he added. “They were accommodating in every way and went above and beyond. I loved working with them.”

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