When did "mid-cabin" boats start appearing on the powerboat scene?
 

As we all know most performance boats are closed deck. ive noticed the mid cabin thing (half open half closed bow) becoming popular. I was wondering when it started coming about and what manufacturers embraced the trend?

Well, Sunsation produced their first 288 Mid Cabin late in 2003. That was the first I knew of.

The first ones I remember seeing in the offshore style were Nordic and Sunsation. I would say it started within the last ten years. Most recently, I saw Donzi offer a mid cabin on their 35 ZR. Looked sharp. I'm sure there are people who know more precise info than me.

i honestly discovered it by mistake while shopping last year, while i found it odd as well i can say i absolutely love it, and it made talking the wife into it easier, seems more of a west coast thing and donzi and sunsation are the only east coast versions that i know of, i think donzi has a zxo that goes back into the early 2000's, west coast goes back into the 90's

I came across an old Concord brochure from the late 80's early 90's. they used to make a boat called a cc-7 that was a mid cabin but they quit making it because it never really took off, maybe it was ahead of its time, lol. it was a 23 ft mid cabin, its a good looking boat if you ask me, ive attatched some pics, let me know what you think. Im tyrng to convince Brian that he needs to start building them again.

I would love to have a 25-35 foot performance boat with an open bow and a fiberglass insert i could put on when it came time to run poker runs. I have seen eliminators with the fiberglass insert and they look sleek!

Whats appealing about them is that you have the open bow with additional seating for friends but you still have a mid cabin that you can duck out of the sun or lock your valuables up inside. I guess if you can drop in a filler cushion in the font seats and snap on a cover, you can still use it as a traditional bed.

+1, i have thought about that but snapping the bow cover on basically nets the same speeds as a closed bow version of my boat

im wanting to think the CC-7 was setup to snap a cover over the bow and you could put an insert in to make a sleeper out of it. they also made a dc-7 which was closed bow version and had a full bed and love seat set up under neath

+2 I'd rather have a convertible bow than a full cabin.
But would have to be a snug fitting and well built fiberglass cover that truly looks like a closed bow when on. Strong enough to walk on etc..