An Owner's Story: Russ Garner

He’s owned the boat since it was new from the factory, repowering it three times: from the original 225HP Johnson, to a 300HP Evinrude in 2010, and now to a Yamaha 300 as he gets ready for the next era of offshore fishing and family time.

 

 

All of Russ’s boating, fishing, and scuba diving is done off the southeast coast of Florida and down in the Keys.

“These days, I try to fish when it’s two to four foot seas, but there were many, many years where my limit was five to seven feet — as I got older that changed,” he says. 

Based near Fort Lauderdale, he loves how quickly the depth drops off: “Sometimes the Gulf Stream is actually right up against our shore, but it’s generally never further than about 15 miles offshore. And that rip or edge is where I generally find the dolphin and wahoo I target. But I’ve also gone to Bimini several times…I take the boat everywhere I can.” 

With close to 9,000 hours of offshore use, his Regulator 23 has seen just about everything — and it’s still the boat he trusts. Now 65, Russ just completed his last repower as the one that will carry him through his next chapter - as well as the boat’s next chapter with his son. “The idea of passing down a 30-plus-year-old Regulator center console that’s been in the family since day one is deeply meaningful,” he added. 

As his wife, Dorienne, once said at a Regulator Owners’ Rendezvous in the Keys, their family legacy is the embodiment of “Regulator for Life.”