Most of the time, in order to achieve something in life you must start with a vision. These visions are often what we dream to have, or dream to be, and if the vision is maintained it is usually realized and sometimes we don’t even recognize we have achieved what we had been dreaming of.
For Candice and Brandon Allen they started with a vision and made it into a reality. Brandon was kind enough to take the time are share his story with us on how his dream boat all came together like it was meant to happen all along. Join us as Brandon recalls the adventure:
t all started as a dream.
I remember going to Havasu for the first time with my buddy Ken. He had brought his DCB 26, which at the time we thought was the biggest boat in the world in our minds.Then on our way to launch crossing over the London bridge, was “Oh my gosh, a F34!” I mean really, the real Mother Mary flagship of the DCB’s. I remember it like it was yesterday, it was a poker Run Edition, white with red graphics. We were both out of our minds the rest of the day trying to find it on the water. Well later that day we found it just floating north of the channel upstream from London Bridge. We slowly cruised up to get a few quick pics, the captain gave us a quick wave and then started his engines and in a few seconds was gone, with a giant rooster of water and the crack of what had to of been some very large motors he was in another time zone!
Well some years later, I believe probably 8 or 10 years, I finally got financially capable of buying my own DCB F26 with twin 300 x motors .Wow what a boat! It was called Lime Time and it was built custom just for me. It had a white hull with green and purple graphics, what a hot rod she was! Well a couple of years passed and I found myself wanting to get a bigger boat. A couple of rough days on the water out in the big part of the lake with some big boats around changed my mind for me. I guess it really depends on what kind of boating you want to do! And for me, I wanted to go bigger. Someday I told myself, but for now still very happy with my boat.
I went on another great trip with my wife Candice and her brother Jody and his girlfriend. After a long day of boating, I was on the phone with one of my best friends AJ of Barrett Custom Marine. Which at that time was a mechanic on the side for a race team called Team CRC. Somehow we got on the subject of boat even though I was calling him to figure out where and what time we were all going to meet for dinner. He told me his good friend Mike Defrees had a 2002 F34 that has not been driven in awhile. Well of course after dinner we went to see the boat. AJ opened the door and there it was. Not the exact one I had seen years before but very similar graphics. In the storage locker she rested with one of Mikes race boats, AJ looked at me and said ”I bet if you talked to him you could strike a deal!”
I waited a little and I did end up giving Mike a call later the next week. I told him that AJ had shown me his F34 and that I was interested in her. He told me about some cool stories of Poker runs that he had taken her too and how his son was practically raised in the boat. After a few phone calls I was determined to get her. We settled on a price then I put my boat up for sale. It was not long before I sold my 26 and was collecting up the rest of the money.
About a month later I brought F34 home. Oh man was my wife not happy at first. She was not really into the graphics and some other things. But I had a vision! A vision of turning her into another similar looking Lime Time! Oh I had a vision all right. Big giant boat and not enough money to do what I wanted; What was I thinking!
I soon started getting a plan together with my wife’s help. “You’re not going to take ten years to build this thing and I don’t want to have to ride in Mom and Dad’s boat for the rest of our lives!” she said. Soon after that discussion I brought the boat down to my good friend Kevin’s shop, KM graphics also known as KMG boats. Not to toot this guys horn because he was in my wedding but he is one of the best Gel coat repair guys period! Kevin took on the job, capped her front and back changed he Graphics from yellow purple and checkers to a brilliant green, silver, and purple! Let me tell you what a job he did! The before and after of this guys work! All I have to say is nothing short of amazing! In the mean time Dave of DCB had some cool Ideas about using some of the new seats that they were using in the newer M-Series boats. So Carlos, who does the upholstery at DCB built five new captain’s chairs and interior to give the boat a poker run theme. Carlos is the man when it comes to clean perfect stitching and the new seats came out flawless. Seeing the upholstery made me want to get the boat done that much faster. I remember Dave saying “let me know when you are ready they will be waiting here on the shelf”. What an awesome job they did on the interior, first class all the way. Also the original 3/4 canopies on the boat were originally real F16 Canopies and they had a bit of gold tint to them and were not very easy to see through, now what the heck was I going to do! So once again I went down to DCB and talked to Tony Chiramonte and with some incredible luck Tony said to me “You might just be inluck! We had a set of canopies that came in for an F29 that we sent back because they had some small blemishes in them”. So he called the company that makes all the DCB canopies and asked what was going to do with them. So I got in my truck and drove over to the company’s shop, I told them about my boat and the build, he then made me a deal I couldn’t refuse! He said “They either go in your truck or they go in my trash! “ I felt like I needed to go buy a lottery ticket that day!
While all of this stuff was going on we had the trailer to deal with. Being on a serious budget and to save some money I took the trailer over to my shop at work to be sanded and painted. The trailer was built buy Extreme Trailers in Fontana CA. What a beast of a trailer, triple axel dually, white with polished stainless fenders that look like they came off a semi truck. We sanded down the white powder coat finish that made a great base for a light metallic silver paint made by a company called Endura in Santee CA. This paint is almost as strong as a powder coat finish. Many thanks go out to the guys at work for staying late and helping me ut for the days I had it there and a special thanks to Louie Russo from our family’s company for shooting the paint. When he was done he looked like the Tin Man from Wizard of OZ! The bunks were next: I tackled them myself wrapping the fresh redwood boards with a thick marine grade dark charcoal carpet. Wrapping and gluing the carpet to the boards by yourself without getting any wrinkles was a feat. I It took a few tries but I figured it out, what a pain. If I ever do that again I will get help!
As Kevin at KMG was finishing his work I was still waiting for the stainless rub rail to arrive from back east. The boat had a white plastic rub rail all the way around the boat before and when we took it off we noticed a distinct mark from where the rub rail had been and a one inch stainless rail would not cover enough from where the old one was. To fix this I special ordered an inch and a half wide stainless rub rail. The ail finally showed up two weeks later and Kevin installed it in one day.
The repower was easier than it was thought it was going to be. The boat at one time in its history was really fast and ran 167 MPH with some giant power Defrees had in it. It was the fastest DCB on the water for a long time. When we got the boat it had some stock Mercury Racing 525 with about 40 hours on them. In order the make the boat a little more responsive we looked to do a Stage 3 Whipple upgrade. Online I found some used Whipple super chargers that came with dual intercoolers. The best part of the deal is they were already painted with matching lime green paint. So with a little extra polishing the whole deal came together like it was all meant to be. The motors make just under 800 HP and the boat has run an easy 131 MPH. All the engine work was done by Teague Custom Marine. Special mention to John Teague for all the extra effort and work he put into completing this project.
Then back to Havasu the boat went to wait at my storage so I could save up enough money to pay DCB for the rest of the interior without my wife killing me! A few months passed and it was two weeks before Desert Storm in Lake Havasu . I finally rounded up the money and went down to see Dave and picked up all the upholstery. The boys at the shop were super busy because of desert storm right around the corner so it was up to me to get this upholstery in and get this thing together. I had spent some time around there shop so with a little bit of guidance from Paul at the shop and some elbow grease I was able to get it done. Kevin brought over the seat backs, the panel inserts, and also the canopies that he painted. Everything he had apart in on this boat came out perfect! So a little elbow grease and we had her together and ready for Desert Storm.
