Third Annual Sun Run Rises To New Heights

With a big night behind him and an even bigger day ahead, Joe Schaldenbrand had just started inhaling what needed to be a quick breakfast when I interrupted him to ask a question. But the Sunsation Boats president welcomed the interruption. It gave him a chance to wax poetic about the third annual Sun Run—a gathering of Sunsation sportboat and center console owners from around the country—in St. Clair, Mich.

Sunsation 40 CCX center console owner Troy Spence and company treated the author to a fine day on the water during yesterday’s third annual Sunsation Boats Sun Run. Photos by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.

“This event is actually a dream come true,” he said. “It’s incredible, seeing all these people. What we build is a lifestyle—that’s what we create. What I like is seeing some of the older boats we built 20, 25 years ago that these guys fix up. They are nicer than they were when they were brand-new because they’re putting in today’s technology—new engines, Seadek flooring, JL Audio stereo systems, LED lighting and more. You’ve got to love seeing these projects where people are really taking care of their Sunsation boats.

“The other great thing about this is I deal with our clients through phones calls, and emails and text messages all the time,” he continued. “Now I can put faces to their names and voices. It’s nice to spend time with the people you’ve helped. It’s awesome.”

((From left) Troy Spence, III, Troy Spence, II, and Beth and David Hank, Troy Spence didn’t mind spending an extra hour at Hook. Photo by Matt Trulio.

Among the customers in the event that Schaldenbrand had helped, though he’d with met him in person more than a few times, was Sun Run first-timer Troy Spence The Michigan native owns a 2022 model-year Sunsation 40 CCX center console equipped with Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. On board with Spence for the day was his 18-year-old son, Troy, III, and close longtime friends David Hank and his wife, Beth. Thanks to Sunsation’s Ryan Wenk, they kindly allowed me to join them for the day.

By either pure happenstance or Wenk’s intention, I also got the chance to put a face to a name. In July 2022, speedonthewater.com’s Jason Johnson wrote an article about the delivery of the 40-footer to Spence, who keeps it at Torch Lake in Northern Michigan during the summer. His son actually reached out to Schaldenbrand to set up the deal, though he left paying for the boat to his father.

The line-up of Sunsation models new and old was dazzling.

“This is my first Sun Run,” said Spence as we pulled away from the docks at the Metro Park host venue for the day. “I think I am going to enjoy it.”

Spence and Hank have known each other since high school—Spence even tried to get Hank “not to rush into anything” when he married Beth not long after graduating high school. But Hank wasn’t budging.

“I told him, ‘Nope, this is the one,’” he said.

All Scrapyard Media hands—including those of Katie DiMaggio—were on deck for the third annual event.

Turns out Hank was right—and then some. Some 38 years and two grown sons later, David and Beth Hank are closer than ever. They laugh constantly. They even still look google-eyed at each other.

It was the perfect, easygoing group to host a complete stranger, and they were unfazed by the sprinkles that greeted us when we entered Lake St. Clair and headed south to Detroit with the 150-plus boat fleet. They didn’t even mind the eventual deluge that kept the entire Sun Run group stuck at the first stop of the day—Hook restaurant in St. Clair Shores—for an extra hour.

Sunsation’s dealer at the Lake of the Ozarks, Performance Boat Center brought a full crew to the Sun Run including Brett Manire, the co-owner of the Osage Beach, Mo., dealership.

No one, in fact, seemed to mind the delay ahead of the catered lunch stop at South Channel Yacht Club on Harsens Island. Though it could have used two more food trucks to feed the now-hungry masses late yesterday afternoon, the popular venue for summer weddings and private parties had more than enough dock space for the fleet.

A couple of hours later, the group left the island and headed back to Metro Park for dinner. Most folks stuck around dinner and the party, though a few bailed out to rest up ahead of today’s Sunsation raft-up in Muscamoot Bay. At least one (me) left to start work.

Informed earlier in the day that 179 Sunsation owners had registered their boats for the event and that most of them—despite an overly dismal weather forecast for the day—had come out to play on Lake St. Clair with the fellow fans of the brand, Schaldenbrand grinned.

Sitting pretty at the docks at Hooks restaurant in St. Clair.

“I believe this is the biggest single-manufacturer event ever held,” he said. “The magnitude of it is incredible.”

As he had throughout the event, Schaldenbrand paused for a moment to shake a few hands with participants as they strolled by, and he thanked them for coming.

“It’s humbling,” he added, as he stared at the Metro Beach crowd. “It’s really humbling.”