Powerboat Magazine Checks Out the 290 Sun Sport

Powerboat magazine held its annual Spring Performance Trials in early May this year and issued an invitation to Formula.

The boat sent to this evaluation was the 290 Sun Sport, Formula’s newest model, introduced at the Miami International Boat Show in mid-February. The 290 SS was first tested by several publications in March, followed up with Formula’s expert propulsion team performing more testing and tweaking to ensure that the boat would perform better than ever for the Powerboat tests.

The boat was trailered down to Fort Myers, Florida, and fueled, prepped and splashed at the Punta Rassa launch ramp on Monday, May 4th. After a final run to ensure the 290 was good to go, the boat was docked at the Sanibel Harbor Resort & Spa marina, ready to make a good impression the following day.

On Tuesday, the Powerboat team was up and at it bright and early. The first order of business was aerial photography. The 290, with its Flagship Elite graphics, garnered a great deal of attention from the chopper. Then, following a short breakfast, the Powerboat crew ran the boat through its paces, recording performance data and poring over the boat, noting design elements, detailing, execution, and fit and finish. Finally, they took cockpit and cabin photos and released the boat back to us by mid-afternoon.

What a great trip! Everything went off without a hitch (something always seems to pop up, but not this time), and we were able to start bringing the boat back north. Although Powerboat’s policy is not to report performance data back to the manufacturer before test publication in the magazine, we could tell they were pleased with the 290 Sun Sport.

Thanks to the design and engineering teams for putting together a fantastic model, and also to the propulsion guys for wringing the best possible performance out of this package, which will now translate to all the 290s we will be producing. We’re looking forward to competing for an award for this boat and getting the word out to Powerboat magazine readers that there’s another great Formula model available to them. To find out more about the 290 SS visit www.formulaboats.com today!