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Sunsation Suspending Sportboat Production in Favor of Performance Center Consoles

In a sign of the times and response to buyer trends, Sunsation Powerboats in Algonac, Mich., won’t be taking orders for sportboats for the foreseeable future. That’s the word from Joe Schaldenbrand, who co-owns the company with his brother, Wayne, and Jared Morris.

sunsation34cc

Sunsation is dedicating all of its production capacity to performance center consoles such as the 34 CCX.

“We have so many center console orders in house that it would be hard to push one back to build a sportboat,” said Schaldenbrand. “We are sold out past New Year’s on center consoles—Performance Boat Center just ordered eight. In one year, we’ll build 24 of the 32 CCX models alone.”

Information on all of the company’s sportboats has been removed from its website.

While Schaldenbrand said Sunsation’s “heritage” is in the V-bottom sportboat market and that the decision to stop producing them is bittersweet, the company hasn’t built one for two years. In addition to the 29-, 32- and 34-footers, Sunsation will continue to develop other performance-oriented center-console offerings.

“As a business, you have to follow where your business is going and the change with the times,” he said. “The automobile industry, for example, went from mini-vans to SUVs. We’ve gone from sportboats to performance center consoles. From where I sit in my office, it’s a beautiful thing. You build them, send them out the door and they run great and there aren’t many warranty claims.”

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