Sunsation F4 43' Ride
 

Looking at possibly buying a used 2013 Sunsation F4 with 700sci stock power and NXT drives. I am an LOTO so am very interested in ride quality of that boat vs other similar brands like Cigarette, Fountain, OL, etc. Is there anyone out there that has a decent amount of seat time with both an F4 similarly powered and some other boats that could give me a heads up on the ride in the rough? Other comments on the F4?

I am coming from a Formula 382 with 500EFI.

Thanks in advance!

Mentalpause on here owned the first F-4 and put just under 100 hours on it at LOTO. I’m sure he’ll chime in. Just so you know the origins of the hull, it is a 38 Powerplay that was cut in half and stretched with additional smaller steps added. It is a great rough water hull.

I owned one for 2 years at LOTO. Handles weekend wash on LOTO and after shootout rush flawlessly. It is in Florida now. It shows up in the this vid at the 3:36 and 7:50 marks.

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Plenty of times I miss the old girl. Like a couple Labor Day weekends back when we were out running the main channel.

Can you compare it’s ride to anything else you have driven of similar size?

FWIW, the 43' Sunsation derived from the 38' Powerplay. The 38' Powerplay is one of the best riding boats out there of it's size. Back in the day, Sunsation obtained an unfinished 38' PP when the company went south.

There are pics somewhere on the web of how they sectioned and stretched the hull to make it the 43' Sunny. Perhaps someone can link that thread.

Sunsation's old website had a user forum where the entire build was documented. Mental has most if not all of those pictures. Other than the cabin, very little remains to where you could ever tell it started life as a 38 PP. The boat was cut around the engine compartment bulkhead to stretch it to accommodate a full staggered setup. Additional smaller steps were added to the hull bottom along with some other tweaks. They grafted on a 32 SS nose, modified the deck to look like a Sunny deck, made the dash from scratch, added the built in swim platform, changed the contour of the hull sides, made a one piece cabin liner out of I believe 3 separate liners from Danny, etc.

Ive done the Friday Shootout Poker run and after Shootout slop in the F-4 and have done a couple Cig Rendezvous in a 38 TS TG along with some Saturday afternoon slop. The extra weight of the F-4 definitely comes into play as that and the full stagger make to where the boat/drives don't come out of the water as much as on the TG.

Long thread that stretched over a couple years. First half was the creation of the molds from the 38PP. Second half is more about making the first boat from the new molds. Brings back memories.

​​​​​​https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...-pictures.html

Thanks to all for the input. I 'pushed the button' yesterday to buy the F4 i was looking at. So excited to try it out on LOTO this spring/summer!