SUNDANCE BOATS
Sundance is the BEST Skiff at the BEST Price!
If you love to fish, or just enjoy a ride on the water then Sundance
Boats has the perfect boat for you. Our dedication to delivering quality products and designs is backed by our own personal
ambitions to do the same things our customers do; Fish or just enjoy a day on the water.
How do you make a hull both lighter and stronger? You add more stringers. Stringers are
like floor joist, the closer the spacing the stiffer the floor. A typical power boat has 4 stringers running fore and aft.
Adding more conventional stringers would make it stronger. But it would also make the boat heavier and more expensive. Sundance
engineers developed the I Beam stringer system which uses foam preforms to build the stringer system at the same time the
boat is laid up. The advantages are a fore and aft stringer every 6 inches. And the stringers, hull and floor are built at
the same time so they cure together for a perfect primary bond. This balanced sandwich construction makes an incredible strong
and stiff hull using less material and less labor.
Sundance I Beam hulls are stiffer, stronger and lighter, and
give you more bang for the buck then any other skiff.
Along with strength we wanted uncompromising safety. Our
boats are virtually unsinkable. The center picture is the aft section of an F19 hull. The five men have a combined weight
of 1125 lbs. The boat is sitting level in the water and you can clearly see most of the 6 inch thick foam preforms. The boat
is drafting 3 inches. That’s unsinkable safety !
We also wanted maximum hull displacement at anchor to minimize
draft. To be a really shallow draft boat the hull needs a flat bottom. Why? Because a flat bottom hull has more displacement
for a given beam then any hull styles. The illustration on the right graphically demonstrates this. The calculation was based
on 17 ft. boats with 76 inch beams and the Vee bottom boat has a 20 degree dead rise bottom. Remember the engine foot and
propeller will be 8 inches below the bottom of the boat.
Another advantage to flat bottom hull forms is planing
efficiency. When a boat is powered at planing speeds, it is the wet surface that creates drag. The more surface area of the
hull and the deeper a hull cuts down into the water - the more drag the engine has to overcome. The most efficient planing
surface is a flat bottom skiff.
Our recommended horsepower may seem low but they will produce top end speeds in
the mid 30’s and give you comfortable cruising speeds in the high 20’s. These are the perfect speeds for in shore
and near shore saltwater fishing in a skiff.
Look in the specifications for each model and you will notice we recommend
smaller 4 stroke engines. We have found that the 4 stroke engines deliver more usable torque than comparable sized 2 strokes.
Again, lighter hulls can use lighter engines and consume less fuel.
We have all heard skiffs are wet and will
slide. We spent years addressing ride and spray concerns. Our new “Posi-Grip, No-Trip” hull design has minimized
these problems. By moving the outer chines inwards the boat will lean into a turn. No other flat bottom does this. And with
multiple turning rails on the bottom, our boat will turn smoothly and with little side slip at any reasonable speed. Our new
SRV bow sends spray laterally and away from the boat and the “No-Trip” chine lets spray fully exhaust to the side
not forward. Other skiffs trap spray between the chines and when the boat slaps it sneezes the spray forward. No other skiff
runs as dry or turns as well as a Sundance. We said it before and we will say it again.
You can contact us at 850-432-2383 or by fax
at 850-432-0165
