Like all closed-deck V-bottom builders, Sunsation Boats was reeling by 2010. No one was buying sportboats—a term that differentiates the breed from center consoles as both are V-bottoms—and the Algonac, Mich., company was all but dark. Its CCX center-console program, which turned out to be boat-builder’s salvation, hadn’t been developed.
So with backing from an Iowa-based customer named Jared Morris, Sunsation made one last stand and—doing what it once did best—launched the 36 Dominator. It was the second-largest offering in the builder’s sportboat line behind the F-4, a full-figured 43-footer.
Between 2010 and 2015, Sunsation built 19 of its 36-foot beauties with staggered Mercury Racing engines ranging from 525s to 700s. That comes out to a little more than three boats a year. Though it was far from enough to sustain the company long-term, the 36 Dominator was a financial bridge of sorts.
By 2013, Sunsation had released its first center console. Three years later, the builder stopped producing sportboats. Company owners Joe and Wayne Schaldenbrand saw the future, and the CCX line of center consoles, which now includes models from 32 to 40 feet, was it.
Common lore has it that center consoles saved Sunsation, and that notion is correct. But the 36 Dominator definitely kept it on life-support between 2010 and 2015.
To that end, it remains one of the most important models the company ever built.