Over a year ago, Ray Brasher purchased a new 34-foot catamaran from Smart Performance Marine. At that time, the boat was just an empty hull, which he actively participated in laying up. However, a bare hull was precisely what the automobile body shop owner from Madisonville, Ky., desired, as his intention was to subcontract the rigging and interior installation and take care of most of the painting himself.
The Rock The River Fun Run was the Brashers’ first organized summer outing in their 34-foot vessel. Photo credit to Pete Boden, copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Brasher enlisted Outcome Marine Group from New Smyrna Beach, Fla., to install the Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines and manage the rigging for the 34-footer. For the interior work, he reached out to a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.
However, when it came to painting the catamaran, Brasher primarily worked alone. His experience in automotive painting from his business helped, plus he had assisted the team at Stephen Miles Design in Owensboro, Ky., a few times. Miles designed the catamaran’s look and prepared the paint masks for the task. He even sent a couple of his staff to help Brasher apply the masks. After that, Brasher was on his own.
Brasher aimed to debut the catamaran in late May at the Kuttawa Cannonball Run on his home waters of Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. His timeline was tight, with just 35 days to paint the boat before it needed to be rigged for the eighth annual Kuttawa event.
“I spent a lot of time working 12 to 16 hours daily to get the colors applied,” he recounted, chuckling.
A project still taking shape.
Miles, who doesn’t give compliments easily, remarked, “Ray did really well, especially for someone who doesn’t paint boats regularly.”
Brasher missed his deadline by five days. George Selley from Outcome Marine even traveled to Kentucky to assist with the installation of the unpainted 500-hp outboards. While finalizing details at the Kuttawa site on the morning of May 31, during the first lunch run, they unfortunately missed the run but made it to the raft-up.
Brasher painted the outboards following the Kuttawa event. Selley stayed behind to help him reinstall them.
In July, Brasher and his wife, Crystal, piloted the catamaran to the Bahamas alongside their friend Nick Evans, who took his center console boat. They then participated in the Rock The River Fun Run in Cincinnati and the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri on consecutive weekends in late August. Thanks to their friends Yvonne Aleman and Greg Harris—who brought their second DCB M37R catamaran and opted to join the DCB group at Super Cat Fest rather than remain in their original dock space—the Brashers enjoyed dockage at Camden at the Lake Resort during the Shootout.
Ray and Crystal Brasher teamed up with their friends Greg and Heather Scheller from Kentucky aboard the couple’s new DCB Performance Marine M37R catamaran for the Lake Powell Challenge event earlier this month.
“It performs excellently,” mentioned Brasher, who previously owned a Trident deckboat and an American Offshore catamaran. “For a smaller boat, it handles the water exceptionally well. I adore its appearance, all the curves, and the colors.”
And he rightly should, considering he played a substantial role in applying those colors.
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