About Sundance Boats

We started Sundance in 1993 with the desire to build the best shallow draft fishing skiffs available and to do it for the best price around.

To accomplish this we needed lighter hulls to maximize the power to weight ratio so we could use lower horsepower engines. Smaller engines weigh less, cost less, use less fuel and require a smaller on board fuel load. We needed extraordinary planing efficiency to get the performance we wanted from these smaller engines.

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.

Sundance is the BEST Skiff at the BEST Price !