52' regal with OPS.

T

tcijoe

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this weekend i spent the night in the marina at the holiday inn, st pete. docked up right next to me was the new 52' regal with OPS...which is a modified IPS system.

we had the honor of taking it out for a sea trial so i wanted to write a few notes about the boat.

performance wise i would have to consider it a rocket. went from a dead stop to 30kts in just a few seconds. this was the second boat i drove with the OPS or IPS system and must say i am quite impressed. the boat really will move in any direction on command. it was so easy some of the people that have never driven a boat before found it quite simple to manuver.

traversing the boat from aft to the bow for cleating lindes was reasably easy and there were plenty of hand rails to grab if needed.

the overhead sunroof was real nice feature.

sitting in the captains chair, you are almost as high as on my flybridge which made it nice as when you are on plane you have an excellent view.

interesting was the empty aft balast tank. this tank is designed to fill up when you come off plane in order to lower the stern of the boat and let it sit level at the dock. when you throttle up it empties out.

i especially liked the dinghy garage in the back.

the only thing that concerns me is for a boat of this size she is very light, 34600lbs. for most boaters the weight will never matter as the boat may never see any real rough water.

generally speaky i was impressed and for the money (approx 800k) a nice all around boat.
 
What does OPS stand for? What is modified vs the IPS?
 
oh gosh...i do not remember what they changed, if i can think of it i will let you know.. it is basically the IPS system and the "o" stand for optimum. do not hold me to this but i think it was the angle they mounted the pods.
 
I went to Volvo's site and couldn't find any reference to this so my curiosity is piqued.
 
it was a regal mod, not a volvo mod.

here is what i remeber him telling me...kind of wish i had not been enjoying adult refreshments all day.

the engines are mounted on an angle to give more cabin room. the hull was designed specifically for the pods, am pretty sure there will be no tradtional inboard option.

not sure if the helps distinguish the "o" from the 'I'
 
The OPS refers to the ballast tank integrated into the hull. When Regal and Don Blount designed the hull for IPS they figured out that the boat would be bow heavy at rest. So they incoporated the OPS (have no idea what it stands for exactly) to fill with water this area is outside the hull and actually integrated into the hull form like a baffle and it simply fill with water and the boat assumes a correct attitude. When you take off and plane it simply drains and does not add any drag. The volvo IPS system is the same as on any boat . As to seaworthyness I just talked to Regal and they had to bring the boat from Ft lauderdale to Sanibel island a little over a week ago. They went around the horn and were in 10-12 foot seas and the boat handled great.
 
Something bothers me about this "OPS" tank. First off, In designing a boat that costs 8-1 million dollars, I would think the attitude of the boat at rest would have been calculated properly with all of the computer technology at hand. Secondly, the maintenance of this tank would be a concern...does it have access to clean and paint as it would be filled with raw water the majority of its life. IMHO I think it sounds like an "OOPS" and the tank was added to correct it.
 
I have similar concerns Mike. The first thought that popped into my head was how to clean out barnacles, etc.

Anyone else ever heard of a similar ballast tank on other boats?

John, I'm a big Regal fan but do you really think they would have said, "we were in 10-12 footers and the ride was terrible"?

I'll wait till I hear from real owners before passing judgment. So when are you getting yours again?
 
If it's not poor design, it's poor marketing. Does anyone want to take a bet that the tank WON'T be referred to as "oops"?

Where is acronym abuse when you need it? Something like, Balance And Lift System Tank B.A.L.S.T...
 
interesting how digesting what sales folks tell you will change your thoughts. i too agree that the balast tank must have been an oops...

i originally thought, why not make that balast tank storage...i guess because of weight. if the storage bin were empty the boat would sit nose dwon.

until this morning, i never gave it a thought about keeping it clean...what a pain...send a diver in..i want to see how big the opening is.
 
Interesting as some of these comments are the fact remains that all available production slots for this model are sold out for the next 2 years. Regal Marketing must be doing something right.
 
Regal has never been about high volume and I think thats one of the things that makes their boats what they are. They make a damn good boat that may not be for everyone but if you look at the poll at the top of this forum you will see that once you become a Regal customer you are very likely to buy at least one more if not 2 or 3!

I've mentioned in my bow thruster thread how the 2 fiberglass guys involved were very impressed with the quality of the Regal hull and said it was definitely a better quality build than most production boats and they had some rather large core samples to look at! Their comments about several other brands today where not as flattering.

Not a kool-aid drinker Pascal. As you know, I'm not a big fan of the styling of this particular boat but I guess thats why they make a number of different models, different strokes for different folks.
 
Dang Pascal, you ruined my chance to win a bet!

I can't give credit to Regal Marketing for the sale of the production slots either. The only time I've seen the 52 is on this site. It's been said here before that LOTS of boats, both new and used sell IN SPITE of the sales and marketing efforts, not because of them.
 
The OPS design is "cutting edge inovation" not an error IMHO. I'm not an engineer but I welcome design inovation that improves performance. On many boats the stearn really digs in and the bow rises up when the skipper throttles-up. This design may reduce that and get the hull up on plane more quickly. As for marketing... I think Regal is trying to keep a superior design a trade secret as long as possible. again IMHO.

Hugh '04 Regal 3860
 
Although I'm not an architect/engineer I'm willing to wager that the IPS type system is very sensitive to attitude of the vessel while underway at speed in order to reach its optimal efficiency. I'm also willing to bet that the design contemplated this and the at rest results were not satisfactory thus the ballast is a way to reconcile those competing interests without reinventing the wheel.

The removable ballast is not a flawed concept, in my opinion, it is unconventional but IPS drives are not conventional either. Regal may not be the only one to face this challenge in designing around the new generation of IPS drives, but it is probably more of an issue here as the 50 is very light for its LOA. A 1000# of ballast placed aft is noticeable on a boat of that weight. If the swim platform were redesigned to accommodate a traditional lifting platform for a dinghy the issue would probably go away. I still believe that there is a design flaw in that the boat can’t handle a traditional RIB or Jet ski on the swim platform.
 
MacGregor sailboats are designed with water ballast tanks. These are not only used while under sail but when motoring in bigger seas. The extra weight helps settle the boat down. When I heard that the 52 had a water ballast tank I wondered if it was also designed to add weight to the boat to settle it down in rough seas?
 
i believe the balast was 800# the opening had to be massive as it only took about 5 seconds to fill up once off plane.

i can tell you there was little to no bow sight loss when going on plane, something i found impressive as when i drive other express cruisers, you lose lots of sight.

they claim a custom boat for each owner.

they are taking $10k deposit to hold the slot, so if you are just thinking about buying one...drop 10k and you are in line. my guess is that is why so many have been sold already.
 
I think the line drawing on the 52's website shows it (the ballast tank) from a side view.
 
Wow! why bother making any comment regarding the 5260. All that happens is it gets trashed. The Regal design team did not make a mistake and I believe that Don Blount ( very respected naval archeitect) and Regal did something innovative to accomidate the IPS system. The first boat produced did not have the OPS system integrated and at the time Regal was still offering both IPS and traditional V-drive engines it also was trimmed just fine when at the dock. However after the first boat was built and they decided to offer IPS they felt that there was more they could do with the boat specifically by expanding the accomidations in the cabin by shrinking the engine room slightly as they did not need the room for a V drive setup. The OPS provides the boat with a great deal of flexibility so much so that they plan to patent the concept(. However I don't know why I bother because every comment will probably be picked apart. I have been on the boat I have overseen every aspect of my boat being bulit and I understand that to each his own but why not give her a chance. As to whether Regal was lying to me about the boat performing in big seas I know the guys and it came up in a totally different context. So yeah I believe them also I have had my 4460 in 8-10 ft waves with an occasional 12 footer thrown in on Lake Michigan. It handled it fine no water over the bow, the props never came out of the water and she reacted to wheel and throttle perfectly. I really would not want to do it again and I was relieved when it was in port but I am pretty confident that the 5260 will every bit as rugged and reliable as my 3860 and my 4460 were.

Just my thoughts

John

P.S. I really miss the old Regal site
 
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