After releasing the first M42R in late 2024, DCB Performance Marine continues to make moves.
The latest move involves relocating its Phoenix production facility down the street, more than a year after the company relocated from Southern California. The new space will not only increase DCB Performance Marine’s square footage, it will speed up production of the custom high-performance catamarans, said Johnny Bauer, DCB’s vice president of manufacturing.
“It was an opportunity that came up,” Bauer said. “It’s not just a financial move but rather it fits our long-term production goals.”
Bauer said the impetus was to move DCB Performance Marine’s spray booths from outside into the climate-controlled building. When they looked at the cost of expanding their existing 27,000-square-foot building in Phoenix, it made more sense to move down the street.
The new 42,000-square-foot facility is owned by managing partners Craig and Kim Hargreaves, who bought DCB Marine in 2023 and moved the boatbuilder to Phoenix from its longtime home in El Cajon, Calif., east of San Diego.
While DCB’s current location near Sky Harbor International Airport was larger than the company’s old two-building facility in California, it still couldn’t accommodate everything the builder wanted. The new production facility will not only allow DCB to bring its paint booths inside, DCB plans to use a “racetrack system” to improve efficiency.
The Hargreaves wanted to move DCB into the space, but it was occupied when the builder originally moved from California. After the tenant gave notice last year, DCB felt it was worth the move up the block.
The new location has expanded roll-up doors to accommodate the larger catamarans DCB is now producing. DCB is adding a third paint booth and updating the interior before moving into the facility by Memorial Day 2025, Bauer said.
“We will move each stage of the operation over there basically one group at a time,” Bauer said. “They’ll finish their operations on a boat here, then they’ll go over there and start on the next boat. Each one will follow over as they finish the operation on the last boat that leaves here.”
It’s a safe bet the new facility will be producing multiples of the M42R, which is DCB Performance Marine’s second catamaran with a full true tunnel. A year in design and manufacturing the new M42R, hull No. 1 was equipped with twin Mercury Racing 500R outboards. Kris and Shelby Hansen of Murrietta, Calif., bought the first model.
In addition to the M42R outboard cat, DCB Performance Marine is launching a sterndrive-powered M45 Widebody in 2025. Once the new catamaran is built, it will be the ninth model in the lineup.
Between the new models and the move down the street, the team at DCB has a busy year ahead.
“We don’t have 30 years of roots in this building like our place in California,” Bauer said. “We have 18 months of roots here, so we’re sitting good as far as the move.”
