Regal Maintenance

[Fouremco]

After many years of sea kayaking and canoeing, my wife and I are now looking to purchase our first motor boat. After much research, and taking into consideration the limited towing capacity of our Honda Pilot, we've narrowed our choice to a Regal 1900, a Sea Ray 195 or a Crownline 19SS, all 2008 models. We are leaning towards the Merc 4.3 TKS, but haven't ruled outgoing to an MPI or even the 5.0L.

The dealers vary from one to two hours drive away, longer if towing a boat. Consequently, when weighing the many, many factors that will lead to our final choice, the distance and frequency of visits to the dealer has to be considered.

The first question, then, is how often can we expect to need to take the boat in for maintenance? Oil changes and other minor routine work I can handle myself, but I don't work on my car and don't expect to start with the boat. As the boat will need to be winterized and put up and the end of each season, would an annual checkup in the spring suffice, or can I expect to take it in several times over the course of the year? I expect that, on average, we would probably put about fifty hours a month on the motor from late May through mid-October.

Any and all comments would be appreciated.

 

[Mischief Managed]

Re: Regal Maintenance

This link is to the Mercruiser owner's manual. It'll tell you everything you need to know. http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Owner/gas/86016803.pdf

Basically, "dealer type" service is required every 100 hours. That said, none of it is terribly hard to do and you may find that you enjoy it if you are capable of doing oil changes and other minor stuff. Any Merc dealer can do the work but many are likely to give better service to sales customers.

 

[backwater dawg]

Re: Regal Maintenance

I saw your previous thread and my comment about service is the same as the rest-probably every 100 hrs or so or once a season you need to service the engine-drive ect---I have owned Regal boats since 1994 and currently still own a 1988 Regal Comm 280 with over 2500 hours on it and I have to tell you, it's been a great boat--not without maint issues like all boats-but it's been a very well built boat and I'm still running it up here on the Mississippi river and would not think twice about running it to the gulf---but thats another issue--good luck

 

[Fouremco]

Re: Regal Maintenance

Very helpful link, as I'd been trying to find an on-line copy of the manual. Thanks!

 

[Fouremco]

Re: Regal Maintenance

Thanks for your input, backwater dawg.