New Boat: Regulator 37

Regulator 37

Meet the category redefining Regulator 37.

Stepping onto the Regulator 37 center console, I immediately appreciated the roominess of the cockpit. But it wasn’t until after I realized how many systems and features the builder installed on this boat while still managing to have wide, unfettered decks to fight fish and invite a large crew aboard, that I was really impressed.

The boat I was standing on at the Miami International Boat Show, hull number one, has a Cummins Onan 13.5-kW genset, a Seakeeper 5, an air-conditioned cabin with a queen-size berth, full head and galley, tackle centers, plenty of seating, gobs of storage space and a helm that feels like it came out of a much larger boat. This boat packs in a ton of stuff, but you’re not cramped at all.

Regulator achieved all this room by using thoughtful design and an integrated engine bracket for the triple 425-hp Yamaha outboards. With the motors and bracket, the vessel stretches from a 37-foot, 7-inch hull to an LOA of 43 feet, 5 inches. Using a bracket gives the boat a more traditionally shaped transom, which houses the livewells, an insulated fish box and a fold-down bench seat. To make boarding easier, there’s a dive door to starboard with a quick-connect ladder.

Regulator 37

Have a closer look in the gallery below:

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When you start lifting hatches, you really see the design at work. Under the lazarette hatch in the cockpit, David Clubbs, Regulator’s senior director of engineering, pointed out the deck they built about 8 inches above the bottom of the bilge. This creates a dry space to mount the various machinery and pumps. Any bilge water stays below the deck. Everything on top of the deck remains nice and dry, great for storing tools and gear.

More systems are hidden under the mezzanine seat in what you could really call a pump room. Lift up the seat and you can access the Seakeeper, optional AC for the helm, battery chargers and various switches. Clubbs admitted that the boat is over-gyroed but said they did that on purpose. This being the factory demo boat, it had already logged nearly 600 hours with everyone who steps on board wanting to push the throttles down and see what it can do. “We build these boats to run hard,” Clubbs said. At 4,000 rpm, the boat cruises at roughly 32 knots, burning 46 gph. At wide open, the 37 tops out at 52 knots.

Regulator maximized the space under the helm seating, with a tackle center and drawers on the starboard side and a fridge/freezer and slide out Kenyon grill on the port side. Enjoying a hot lunch when you’re trolling at 7 knots some 50 miles offshore is a luxury that never gets old. As I slid up to the steering wheel, which is mounted on centerline, I turned to Regulator’s president and co-founder, Joan Maxwell. I must’ve been smiling because she read my mind. “This is a big boat helm,” she said.

Not only is the helm spacious with clear sightlines, but it’s also clean. There are no analog gauges at all. The two 22-inch Garmins run a digital system interface called MyHelm that Regulator designed in-house. The operator can monitor helm speed, voltage and fuel burn while also controlling the pumps, lights, Seakeeper, shade, windshield vent and more. It’s intuitive and robust. For example, just like your car, the 37’s windshield wiper requires only one switch to turn on both the wiper and the spray. In the past, you had to click three buttons: the freshwater pump, the wiper and then the spritzer. Another smart touch that you don’t really notice because Regulator set it up the way you would expect it to be: There is one row of actual switches for your most important functions like nav lights and pumps, but everything else is found in MyHelm.

“There’s so many systems on this boat that if we didn’t have MyHelm, you’d be pepper-sprayed with switches here,” Clubbs said, pointing to the dash. “We want this boat to be easy to use.” To make things easier, there is a key fob that can turn off MyHelm as you leave the boat, or fire it up when you arrive. That means there’s only one button to push instead of going through the typical checklist before you leave the boat at the dock or find yourself at home hours later wondering if you remembered to shut off the courtesy lights.

The cabin space in the console was much larger than I expected with plenty of head room and a U-shaped seat that has a filler cushion to turn it into a queen-size berth. There’s rod storage under the seats, and the AC pulls the return air over this compartment to help keep the space dry and free of that musty smell you get when storing wet rods inside. There is a wet head so you can take a hot shower, and a small galley.

The electric table in the bow is an ideal spot to enjoy that hot lunch, and when you don’t need the table, it drops flush to the deck. There’s also a two-person lounge forward of the helm, and all of the storage areas are insulated so they can double as coolers.

The Regulator 37 is full of surprises. Yes, it has the high-quality hardware and fit-and-finish you’d expect from this builder, but the clever design and use of the latest technology shows how Regulator continues to up the caliber of its vessels.

Regulator 37 Specifications:

LOA: 43’5”
Beam: 12’7”
Draft: 3’10” Weight: 19,300 lbs. (dry)
Fuel: 507 gal.
Diesel: 21 gal.
Water: 50 gal.
Power: 3/425-hp Yamaha XF outboards

Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/regulator-37-review