With everything happening during last week’s Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and Super Cat Fest in Central Missouri, the public debut of Sunsation’s 39 CCX almost got lost in the shuffle. Some two years in the making, the 39-foot performance-oriented center console arrived at Performance Boat Center last Tuesday just three days before it turned heads during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Poker Run.

The Sunsation 39 CCX arrived at Performance Boat Center just a few days before its publc debut in the Lake of the Ozarks Poker Run (click image to enlarge).

“Sunsation hit it out of the park with this boat,” said Brett Manire, who co-owns the full-service Sunsation Boats, Cigarette Racing Team, MTI and Wright Performance Powerboats dealership in Osage Beach.

While Sunsation sales manager Joe Schaldenbrand, who owns the company with his brother, Wayne, Kyle Miler and Jared Morris, wasn’t able to make it to the event this year, no one was more delighted with the finished product. The week before the boat, which is powered by triple Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines, headed south he tested it on the St. Clair River near Sunsation’s facility in Algonac, Mich.

“To be honest, it way exceeded my expectations,” he said. “When I drove it, I was ecstatic. It’s very agile and nimble, and at 40 mph when I hit the throttles if you weren’t hanging on when you were standing up I was sitting you down.

“I have never run a big center console like this one, and I’ve run a lot of them,” he added. “It was more like driving a sportboat. But it’s also a wave-crusher. In the stuff we encountered on the river, it was impressive.”

For a closer look at the Sunsation 39 CCX, check out the slideshow above.

Schaldenbrand was quick to credit consultant Tres Martin, the founder of the performance-boat driving school that bears his name, for the success of the project. Martin, he said, designed the boat’s hull from scratch.

“It’s all because of Tres,” he said. “He nailed the bottom on our 32 and he nailed the bottom on our new 39.

“In the past, we’ve done designs in house and had Tres come in as a consultant,” he continued. “This time, we hired him and had him come in up front.”

For both Schaldenbrand and Manire, the 39 CCX topped out at 75 mph.

“It’s not all the way dialed in, but whether it runs 75 or 77 mph, people aren’t buying these boats for top speed,” said Schaldenbrand. “That’s not even close to as important as it was back in the day when we were building sportboats. I am more impressed, and our customers will be more impressed, with features like the dive door and the bow thruster.”

Related stories
Sunsation 39 CCX Tooling Delivered, Construction Underway
Sunsation’s Centered Salvation
Sunsation Still Developing Larger CCX Model
Sunsation 32 CCX Sales ‘On Fire,’ 39 CCX Grows To 41
Sunsation Expanding Lamination Capacity, Considering 39-Foot Center Console