Regal 2250

[mlines]

Members of the old "Sportsboat and Rib" forum will remember this boat as being the Regal 2250 of Mark (Centaur). We were fortunate to be offered the chance to purchase it earlier this year (I am sure Mark will be along to tell the new story at some point).

We always coveted this beautifully kept and specified boat and now it is ours (it is jointly owned with James, xboatboyx of this forum, who invested his life savings in his share).

For those of you who do not know this boat it has the 5.7 litre 350MAG engine. Mark had a custom wakeboard tower fitted (I guess I am going to have to buy a board and learn now!) and replaced the flooring with teak. It is full of electronics with all the lights replaced with LEDs etc. It even has heating installed.

[Ianfs]

I have to say that I am particularly taken with this boat, it's layout is excellent for family cruising and socialising, not a lot of accommodation, but it's what you would expect and that's not what the design is about. This boat has an excellent seating area, easy access for all and great entertainment area.

There is a sting in her tail though, which makes her a great sports boat and that is the 350mag in a 22' boat weighing 1800kgs dry!

[Xboatboyx]

Why Thank You . Yes the Regal is great all rounder for us as its still trailable, but just gives us that bit more than the bowrider with its better sea keeping and cabin. The other main difference is the boats fit and finish compared to the budget built Bayliner. Thanks to Mark the boat well spec'd out with Custom Wakeboard Tower, Webasto Heating, LED lighting and fake teak flooring. This leaves the problem for me that the boat actually doesn't need anything doing to it apart from standard servicing, however we've got a few finishing touches to do to it ready for the summer .

Your welcome to have a trip out on it if your in the Henley area in the summer along with the ever growing guest list of people wanting to go out on it this year!

James

[Ianfs]

Well funny you should ask about a trip out.

With family still in Marlow and my daughters marriage at All Saints Marlow in August, reception at Court Gardens and a launch from The Complete Angler, I was kind of considering, with the fact that we are coming down before hand, that a trip out on the "Auld Father Thames" would be in order!!

[mlines]

I sent out the valet today to do some work as he has a 50% share in the boat....

We purchased a random orbital polisher recently so gave it a go.






Only let him stop when he could see his mirror reflection in the boat.

[Ianfs]

How did you get on with the polisher James?

[Xboatboyx]

In terms of looks there isn't much or any difference as the gel coat was in excellent condition to start with so it didn't need cutting into and it was just a case of putting a wax over the boat. My aim was to build up a layer to protect the gel and to create a finish so those nasty black marks just wash away easily.

You can feel a massive difference when rubbing your fingers across the boat as its now super slippery compared to boats which haven't been polished. The stainless steel also came up nicely leaving an almost mirror like reflection . Overall I am very happy with how the boat looks now and I hope to keep it this way which should be easy with regular cleans.

[ColinR]

That's a similar style of polisher to the one that I use. Very effective. I use it with the Starbright hull polish although I've used others in the past. I usually go over with Farecla G10 first.

[Ianfs]

That Farecla G10 is amazing stuff, I've used it in the past.

Interesting to here the feel of the hull once the polish is applied, this is how a hull should feel, whether it feel like that after a ride in salt water, well, who knows?

[mlines]

So over Christmas we ordered some new name graphics for the boat but could not install them until the weather was above 10c to allow them to stick properly. So with the weather a lot warmer today I went down to the boat to do some work. We wanted to keep the name of the old boat and we also liked the style of the lettering. Therefore I got http://www.funkymonkeydesign.co.uk to make us up some new graphics.



The first task was to decide on the layout for the transom. Eventually we decided that the "POOLE" graphic was not the correct size so we omitted that.







With the layout decided it was time to apply them. This involved some care and measuring to ensure they were straight and then I secured them with more tape. Once secured I could wet down the boat with water and soap and then remove the graphic backing paper.



The finished item




The next job was to fit the ensign pole, the Regal has a very low transom and not many places where it can fit and look ok. So again it was a matter of looking and deciding.





I tried various positions both for look and easy of access to the rear to bolt it together.










Eventually I could see that the only place it could reasonably fit was on the port side of the transom/swim platform