Beam: 8’4″
Dry Weight: 3,500 lb.
Seating/Weight Capacity: 12/3,100 lb.
Fuel Capacity: 54 gal.
We Say: Give Splendor’s 239 SunStar a quick glance and it would be easy to sum it up as just another deck boat. Take another look and you may notice something different. That’s no V — it’s a catamaran. Cats deliver improved stability in rough waters and typically draw less water. Trim up the engine and the 239 needs a mere 12 inches.
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
A cat also delivers added depth where a V-hull doesn’t: Thanks to the hull below, the head is nearly 4 feet deep. Splendor also drops the bow cockpit lower than the main to keep passengers out of the driver’s line of sight. A self-bailing cockpit, mucho storage and a foam-filled hull might not be exclusives, but they explain why Splendors are favorites in coastal waters. So too is the over-3-foot-deep bow platform, which doubles as a nice casting deck.
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Splendor 239 SunStar
Instead of conservative graphics and colors, our test boat featured a black hull and bold, lime green graphics. They’re a good match for a boat that planed in only 2.9 seconds, handled with the agility of a V-hull, and topped out at 43 mph with a 225 hp Suzuki outboard.
Splendor 239 SunStar
Who’d Want One: Those looking for a deck boat’s layout and fish-ski-cruise versatility but demanding the stability, shallower draft and rough-water prowess of a catamaran.
Another Choice: Cat-style decks are rare. Hurricane‘s V-hull SunDeck SD 237 OB ($66,717 with a Yamaha F225) sports a similar cockpit layout, an elongated bow area and an oversize forward platform.
Bottom Line: $46,900 (with test power); splendorboats.com
