Project Update: Visual Imagination Laying Down DCB M35 Paint Job

The first painted DCB Performance Boats M35 Widebody catamaran is nearing completion according to Brad Kloepfer, the good friend of the boat’s new owner—JP O’Donoghue of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. Currently receiving an outrageous custom paint job from Mark Morris and company at Visual Imagination in Peculiar, Mo., the 35-footer is expected to return to the DCB factory in El Cajon, Calif., in the next four to five weeks.

DCB Performance Boats founder Dave Hemmingson and the new owner of an M35 Widebody currently being painted by Visual Imagination visited the Missouri paint shop in early February.

At that point, the crew at DCB will need about six weeks to install the custom interior and complete the first-rate rigging for the twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines.

Earlier this month, O’Donoghue, Kloepfer and DCB founder Dave Hemmingson took a trip to Missouri to check on the boat and get a better feel for the Visual Imagination facility and process as Hemmingson may send more boats that way in the future.

“We made some minor changes to the paint job and added more detail in and around the engine compartment, including some carbon-fiber accents, so the boat will be at Visual Imagination a little longer than expected,” said Kloepfer, who added that they’ve created a Facebook page for the new boat, which is named Lickity Split. “Mark and the guys over there are pretty good at sending us photo updates on the process, which has been really cool.”

Painting a 35-foot catamaran is an in-depth process as you can see from the slideshow above.

Although the boat won’t be ready for the Desert Storm Poker Run at the end of April as originally intended, O’Donoghue and Kloepfer are fine with that as they want the catamaran perfect and plan to attend several events throughout the summer, including the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri. According to Kloepfer, the boat’s matching SportChassis P4XL luxury sport utility vehicle isn’t expected to be finished until July anyway.

“We’ve told both Dave and Mark Morris not to hurry to meet a deadline—we want perfection when we’re spending this kind of money,” Kloepfer said. “I don’t think either of them would sacrifice their good names just to get it done by a specific date anyway.”

Editor’s note: Speedonthewater.com will provide more updates on the M35 once it returns to DCB.

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DCB Gets Imaginative with First Painted M35 Widebody