Lickity Split Racing

DCB's craziest M35 Widebody built to date

Visual Imagination Laying Down DCB M35 Paint Job

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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.dcbm35 visualimagination2DCB 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.

Written by: Jason Johnson – http://speedonthewater.com/boat-restorationsprojectsupgrades/2608-project-update-visual-imagination-laying-down-dcb-m35-paint-job

DCB Gets Imaginative w/Lickity Split

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Although this rendering is a work in progress, Visual Imagination will start applying the first paint job to a new M35 Widebody from DCB Performance Boats next week.

Thanks to a new M35 Widebody ordered by Lake Havasu City, Ariz., customer JP O’Donoghue, DCB Performance Boats now has a new option for future owners—paint. Yes, the El Cajon, Calif., company that is known for impeccable gelcoat graphics is turning one of its 35-foot catamarans over to Visual Imagination in Peculiar, Mo., for a one-of-a-kind paint job.

According to DCB founder Dave Hemmingson, the M35, which will be powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines, is being shipped to Missouri next week where it will receive its custom paint job from Mark Morris and company at Visual Imagination. Morris, who is excited to put his stamp on the M35, expects the paint job to take six weeks to complete. After that, the boat will return to DCB for rigging, interior installation and more before making its debut at the Desert Storm Poker Run in April.

“I’m excited about this boat because I think we’re going to get a great three-dimensional look to it thanks to Mark Morris,” Hemmingson said. “I’ve bonded with Mark and he’s a great guy. Actually we’re looking forward to doing some more boats in the future with him. We’re not going to stop doing gelcoat, but we’ll do some crazy painted boats here and there, and Mark is going to be our guy.

“Really it’s just another option,” he continued. “If someone wants that 3D shadowing effect or the real candy colors, paint is hard to beat. If you want gelcoat, we’re as good as it gets in that department. It really depends on the customer’s needs.”

With a white-and-black gelcoat base, DCB’s M35 is nearly ready for its custom paint job.

The customer in this case fell in love with DCB’s boats at the 2014 Los Angeles Boat Show and ordered an M35 a few weeks later after visiting with Hemmingson at the DCB shop. The catch was that he wanted the boat, which he’s named Lickity Split, to stand out with an unprecedented paint job rather than the company’s tried-and-true gelcoat graphics. So Hemmingson went in search of a painter and was thoroughly impressed by Morris and the Visual Imagination crew.

O’Donoghue’s good friend, Brad Kloepfer, who is handling most of the build process approvals and plans to drive the 35-footer with O’Donoghue, has been impressed by Morris as well. To complement the soon-to-be-applied green, orange and black paint job, Kloepfer said the boat is going to be fully loaded with only the top-of-the-line accessories offered by DCB.

Owner JP O’Donoghue has been able to watch the build of Lickity Split from the early stages of construction.

He also said the boat will be towed by a matching SportChassis P4XL luxury sport utility vehicle and that he’s currently putting together Lickity Split apparel as well as a website to promote the 35-footer and the various poker runs he and O’Donoghue plan to attend next year.

“Both JP and Brad are really good guys—we’re fortunate to have them as part of the DCB family,” Hemmingson said. “We’re looking forward to hanging out with them and doing some events, starting with the Desert Storm Poker Run. The boat is going to have every option you can think of. It’s a super fun project—it really is. I can’t wait to see how it comes out and how much attention it gets.”

To follow the new M35 as it gets painted, rigged and water-tested, be sure to look for updates on speedonthewater.com.

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Former Powerboat editor Jason Johnson was an integral part of the magazine staff from 2005 through 2011, utilizing journalistic integrity and experience in and around performance boats to report on all aspects of the go-fast lifestyle. The award-winning writer resides in Southern California and is the executive editor and co-publisher of speedonthewater.com, and writes for Sportboat and Powerboating in Paradise magazines.