A lifelong West Coast business owner and powerboat enthusiast, Mark Sundberg left Seattle and moved to Siesta Key in Southwest Florida last August. Not long after, he and his wife, Tracy, bought a new 28-foot Boston Whaler maxed out with options. But it wasn’t the boat for them.

“During the Thanksgiving holiday in 2020, I took Tracy out into the Gulf of Mexico on the Whaler and she didn’t like it,” said Mark Sundberg, who also currently owns an Air Nautique wake-surfing boat and a houseboat—with a couple of partners—kept in Arizona on the Southern Shore of Lake Powell. “I had seen a Nor-Tech on Lake Powell. I think it was a 340 and I thought it was the coolest boat, ever.”

Said Mark Sundberg of his new Nor-Tech 390 Sport Center Console, “It’s the coolest boat I’ve ever owned.”

Knowing he wanted to make a change, Sundberg reached out to Erickson Marine, a Nor-Tech High-Performance Boats dealer in Sarasota. There he met company founder Bill Erickson, and his son, Chris, who worked with him on the ordering process.

Now he has a Nor-Tech 390 Sport center console powered by triple Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines on a lift behind his waterfront home.

“Mark ordered the 390 with a lot of options like a second row of bolsters and the Club Sport seating setup in the rear of the cockpit,” said Chris Erickson, who turned over the 39-footer to Sundberg on Monday. “The paint, which was done in house at Nor-Tech, is really cool. It has a fade from what they call ‘bling silver’ to ‘sterling silver’ and it’s carried onto the gunwales.

“Because he’s had a lot of boats before, his learning curve with the Nor-Tech was short,” he added. “He got everything right away.”

Sundberg has already started exploring with the boat. On Monday night, he and his wife cruised to a waterfront restaurant on Long Boat Key. The following day, he and a friend ran it north to St. Petersburg.

“It’s the coolest boat I have ever owned,” said Sundberg. “It’s just so smooth. The powerband is unbelievable. It drives like a racecar and handles the water. It’s everything we wanted.

“I’ve already burned half a tank of fuel,” he added, then laughed.

Coming from the West Coast where shallow waters—much less shifting sandbars—far from shore aren’t a concern, Sundberg has been adjusting to boating in Southwest Florida. There are so many more places to go for day trips, from lunches at restaurants on the water to hanging out sandbars, than there are off the Coast of Washington. But there also are far more shallows and submerged hazards.

The owner couldn’t be happier with the boat’s triple Mercury Racing 450R outboard engine power package.

“It’s two completely different kinds of boating, but the biggest thing for me is water depth,” he said. “You really have to watch it—there’s no screwing around with the channel markers.”

Though he’s not done exploring his local waters, Sundberg intends to branch out in the near future with a trip to Key West. He’s also looking forward to getting his daughters, 20-year-old Emily and 17-year-old Kate in the boat.

His entire experience with the 39-footer, he said, from day he walked into Erickson Marine to his recent run to St. Pete, has been wonderful.

“Bill and Chris Ericksonn were unbelievable through the whole order process,” he said. “And Kevin Lane and the rest of the crew at Nor-Tech were incredible throughout the design process. They treated us like family.”

Mark Sundberg (right) worked closely with Chris Erickson at family’s Sarasota-based Nor-Tech dealership to order the 39-footer.

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