East Meets West At The 2022 DCB Owners Regatta

If the world is indeed small—as the saying goes—the performance boating part of it is miniscule. And that, in part, explains why Ken Lalonde, one of the founders of the 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run in Clayton, N.Y., and his friend Dave Montroy, a Gold-level sponsor and longtime supporter of the event, ended up in Arizona this week for the annual DCB Performance Boats Owners Regatta on Lake Havasu.

Though he didn’t bring his M37R catamaran to the DCB Owners Regatta, Ken Lalonde did bring his friend Dave Montroy to the event, and now there will be two 37-footers in Upstate New York.

As previously reported, Lalonde and his wife, Renee—both of whom are members of the 1,000 Islands event organizing committee—own a DCB M37R Widebody catamaran and a color-matched Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console. But while the Lalondes are the first couple in the Northeast to own one of the El Cajon, Calif., custom catamaran builder’s 37-footers, they won’t be the last.

Making that deal happen was one reason Lalonde, who left his own cat back in New York, Montroy and their mutual friend and 1,000 Islands event-backer, Mike Lasell, flew across the country for the event.

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DCB M41 Widebody catamaran owner Mike Moreno played the Star Spangled Banner during the traditional Friday morning flag unfurling from the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City before the upriver lunch run to Pirate Cove Resort.

“Though Dave currently owns a yacht, he’s been around poker runs a long time—he used to own a Fountain—and has been into powersports his whole life,” Lalonde said. “He told me he wanted to get a catamaran for poker runs and asked me what’s out there. I told him, ‘I think Bryce Menzies is selling his DCB M37R, and that’s as good as catamarans get, but if you want it we need to get out there now and make a deal. Because it will go quick.’”

For Friday’s lunch run to Pirate Cove Resort, the New York crew caught a ride with DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte in an eight-seater. Yesterday morning, Menzies handed the keys of his first 37-footer—he has a new one coming—to Lalonde and he took Montroy and Lasell for a long morning test-drive on the lake, which included a photo shoot. Montroy was sold and a deal is in the offing.

On the new-boat side of the regatta, Shawn Reed’s new M37R Widebody catamaran was delivered just in time for the Lake Havasu City, Ariz., resident to participate. (Read the story.)

“Tony, Jeff and the rest of the guys at DCB treated us great, as always” Lalonde said. “We went to the banquet last night and had a great time. They gave him the full treatment.”

Lalonde paused, then laughed. “You know, people kept coming up to me and saying, ‘I recognize you from your (Speed On The Water) videos,’” he said. “I felt like a celebrity.”

Though the event technically ended Friday, at least 40 DCB owners—Lalonde among them—hung around yesterday for some casual boating on the Colorado River-fed lake. The event began Thursday with a laid-back fun run, with almost 50 DCB models in the mix, to Havasu Springs, and was followed by Friday’s 70-boat trek to Pirate Cove.

DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte called the 2022 happening “one for the books.”

“Dude, It was epic,” he said. “The runs during the day and the parties at night we’re awesome. We had more than 300 people at the Friday night banquet at the London Bridge Resort. There wasn’t an empty seat in the room.

“And during yesterday morning’s video shoot, we had nine DCBs running in formation,” he added.

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A few on-board moments from the Saturday morning photo shoot.

Jeff Johnston, the president of DCB, agreed.

“It was an awesome regatta,” he said. “The appreciation our customers give us is so rewarding. On Friday night during the banquet, they brought all of us, all the DCB employees there, on stage and gave us a standing ovation. That was incredibly moving.”

Johnston paused for a moment.

“And now New York will be home to two DCB M37R catamarans,” he added. “That’s so cool.”

The docks behind the London Bridge Resort host venue were packed with DCB creations and onlookers admiring them.

East Meets West At The 2022 DCB Owners Regatta

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