First 500R-Powered Sunsation 40 CCX Center Console Going To Repeat Buyer From Puerto Rico

During the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in late October, Sunsation Boats national sales and marketing manager Ryan Wenk met with Erik Chaves, a native Puerto Rican ready to own his second 40 CCX center console. Despite that Wenk’s Spanish is on par with Chaves’ English—meaning not so hot—they communicated well enough for Chaves to order another 40-footer.

Owned by Erik Chaves, this Sunsation 40 CCX center console is the first to be powered by quad Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines. Photos by Brad DiMaggio copyright Scrapyard Media.

Proof positive that, when it comes to high-performance powerboats, no language barrier is too great.

His first 40 CCX was powered by quad Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines. Chaves remains the sole client of the Algonac, Mich., company to own a 40-footer with that power package.

His second 40 CCX is equipped with quad 500R outboards. And once again, Chaves is the only Sunsation customer to own a 40-footer powered by four of Mercury Racing’s most powerful outboards.

Once testing and dial-in are complete, the 40-footer will be delivered to Puerto Rico.

But not for long. His close friend Luis Ortiz, who like Chaves is from the sunny United States territory, joined him at the Fort Lauderdale show. A previous Sunsation 34 CCX owner, Ortiz ordered a 40 CCX of his own.

And that center console will boast quad 500Rs when it is delivered in late summer/early fall.

The Chaves-owned CCX 40, on the other hand, will be delivered to Sunsation dealer Performance Boat Center in Osage Beach, Mo., tomorrow for test sessions and final set-up work. From there, it will be hauled to Jacksonville, Fla., and shipped to Puerto Rico.

The boat’s command center is loaded with electronics and features.

Since introducing the 40-footer in 2018, Sunsation has completed 17 of them. Still, the heavily customized build for Chaves was among “the most challenging” 40 CCX builds to date for the company according to Wenk.

“And the finished product speaks for itself,” he said. “Our 40CCX has come a long way thanks to customers like Erik, and we’re grateful for their excitement and pushing us to our limits.”