Gary H NC
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2005
- Messages
- 8,972
The next in line of our Reviews at the Bayliner Maxum press event held in Southport NC
This nice, large size family bow rider ran 50.1mph at 4,700rpm in growing chop and 12-18mph wind. The 5 liter Alpha didn?t have too hard of a hard time getting it out of the hole but sure did throw the nose in the air, blocking forward view at a rather important time. The 5L did give it some good speed for its size and three adults on board and a full 50 gallons of fuel. This boat would be a good candidate for a Bravo 1 (an option with the 350 Mag engine) and the accompanying larger propellers to bring her bow down quicker. It?s not quite large enough or heavy enough to throw a Bravo III at (although it too is an option).
The day we tested the boats was partly cloudy, warm but a pretty good wind was kicking up out of the south. We started with light chop and wound up with rollers later in the day. When we tested the 205 and then the 225 we noticed a nice improvement in how the heavier, deeper 225 would handle the increasingly bumpier waters. For larger bodies of water, the 225 is a nice bow rider. It?s not a cruiser, it?s still a bow rider but it is into a good size cruising bow rider range for longer day trips or local cruises. It will serve you well for wakeboarding, tubing and recreational skiing. This is a good size boat and makes a bid dent in the water. Slalom skiers should not expect this boat to be their tournament dream boat.
Like the other new Bayliners, the boat had tons of storage, everywhere you would look. Even a cooler/ice chest and waste basket. Storage below the deck is very large and long. Easily a good spot for unruly passengers, water skis, boat hook, etc. The hatch is hinged and has a supporting pneumatic shock to keep it from flopping down on your head when you?re reaching into the cavernous storage area.
I like that it had snap-in carpet. I?d leave it at home for most regular boating. For families with kids and food on board, snap-in carpet that can easily snap-out for the day is a great feature. A soda or juice spill can make for a real nasty stain on carpet but can just get hosed out the scuppers if it falls on a fiberglass deck. If you?re going cruising and want the ?wall to wall? carpet feel, just pop it back in. It?s a great accessory.
This model features a very innovative engine compartment access system. The cover is in three parts. When you open it people on the dock think you?re boat is a ?Transformer? because so much of it is moving someplace else. The reason for the three parts was to allow the new feature of the walk-through passageway in the center of the sun deck. Pop off the center section of the sun deck pad and there is a nice non-skid walkway from the swim platform to the cockpit. The hatches were well supported and really gave fantastic access to the engine and other components in the engine compartment. Aft of the engine compartment is a roomy integral swim platform with a shower kit installed. Just like the Bayliner 205, this boat featured an extended swim platform that makes for easy access for swimmers and quieter idling. The seating in the cockpit is a ?surround? pattern. Kind of like a sectional sofa in your family room. There?s plenty of seating and it?s well padded. You can easily move the padding and have places to walk/step on fiberglass to enter or exit the boat so you don?t always walk on nice clean seats. Bayliner should add some tabs and snaps to the aft most ends of the seat pads though. Underway, and with no one sitting on them, they had a tendency to become partially airborne. It was surprising to see them attempt get sucked out of the boat by the air moving through the boat at speed. They looked like the air brakes on a jet (you know, the ones that lift up from the top of the wings when you land). They wouldn?t really get sucked out because they are hinged at the front ends but a simple snap would keep them in place.
This boat has a similar dash arrangement to the 205. A feature I liked. The console hood keeps sun off the instruments and the little shelf is there for your glasses or GPS. As the boats in the line get larger they become more finished as well. Below the steering wheel is finished and incorporates an inspection/access hatch to the back side of the instrument panel and steering mechanism. The test boat was equipped with the premium sound system, just like the 205. The sound folks went nuts on speakers for this boat. If it?s there, you have to try it so we did. The satellite service gave us a wide selection of music to select from so we played with that too. The boat has speakers in the bow riding area, the cockpit and even in the transom, facing aft. Does the skier or tuber really need to hear tunes? I?m not sure but they definitely will with his system. Audiophiles, you?ll like it. Bring your MP3 ?cause you can hook that in too.
Because this is a larger boat with greater freeboard, the seat at the helm has a bolster feature. You can set or rest against it for comfort and security yet keep your head above the top of the windscreen. The cockpit has a lot of leg/foot room for passengers in the two bucket seats or on the rear bench seat. There?s more storage and cup holders a plenty. The even include a rather silly accessory that gets more in the way than being useful. It?s a movable, double cup holder. Imagine two pockets for cups (cans, etc.) in a vinyl throw pillow about the size of a football with a board stapled to the bottom. The board sticks out about four or five inches at one end of the throw pillow so you can stick it under the seat back of the bolster seat; or maybe sit on it. This ?innovation? can be left on shore. Or, stick it in one of the handy storage areas. The last thing is does is hold your beverage in place. But, odds are, this would the worst experience from your purchase of this boat. And that ain?t bad.
Looking forward toward the bow riding area, there is a nice feature for cruising. There?s a little folding door that acts as a wind block in the companionway between the bow riding passenger area and the cockpit. It goes from the floor to the bottom of the windscreen. Some builders supply you with a canvass cover for that companionway. The little door is a nice idea to keep wind out of the main cockpit underway and handy to open and close when needed. The companionway door on this boat squeaked a bit under way. We detected that the squeaking was coming from where the door meets the bulkhead on the drivers side, when closed (the hinge is on the passenger side bulkhead). But that?s an easy fix with a little foam tape or those handy plastic, sticky buttons. The seat and seat backs in the bow area were comfortable and supportive in the right places. There?s storage below the seats and behind the seats with their backs to the windscreen bulkhead. The snap-in carpet goes all the way forward too. Just like at the stern, there?s a removable section of the seat at the point of the bow so you can walk on the anti-skid fiberglass to step to the bow to enter or exit. And guess what they put under that handy step? yup, more storage or you can use it as a cooler.
It?s nice to see these thoughtful features to help reduce damage to seat cushions from walking on them. A boater must have infiltrated the engineering department at Bayliner because these folks think like boaters, not just boat designers. Again, just like on the 205 (probably our favorite boat of the 11 we tested) Bayliner added stainless steel grab rails and integrated them into the gunwales in the bow riding area. They?re great to hang on to and hang your fenders on.
Some folks will like to use this size boat to take friends and family to local swimming beaches around their favorite boating areas. This size boat handily accommodates beaching at the bow. It has a very handy bow ladder secured under a molded cover. Again, good boater friendly design ideas.
The Bayliner folks showed us photos of this boat with the wakeboard tower, the test boat did not have that option. We saw photos of the boat with the bimini too. The test boat had the hardware for the bimini but we were too lazy to install it for the test. I?m a big fan of bimini tops. They leave room for you to walk around and give good shade so you can be out on the water longer. Most are built well enough to stay standing while running.
If you take a look at the ?08 225 and this redesigned ?09 225 you?ll see the Bayliner folks have been busy. With input from us FORUMS members, other owners and with boating minded designers, they?re delivering boats more boaters will consider
Overall this is one great boat for the money.
MSRP 39,598
This nice, large size family bow rider ran 50.1mph at 4,700rpm in growing chop and 12-18mph wind. The 5 liter Alpha didn?t have too hard of a hard time getting it out of the hole but sure did throw the nose in the air, blocking forward view at a rather important time. The 5L did give it some good speed for its size and three adults on board and a full 50 gallons of fuel. This boat would be a good candidate for a Bravo 1 (an option with the 350 Mag engine) and the accompanying larger propellers to bring her bow down quicker. It?s not quite large enough or heavy enough to throw a Bravo III at (although it too is an option).
The day we tested the boats was partly cloudy, warm but a pretty good wind was kicking up out of the south. We started with light chop and wound up with rollers later in the day. When we tested the 205 and then the 225 we noticed a nice improvement in how the heavier, deeper 225 would handle the increasingly bumpier waters. For larger bodies of water, the 225 is a nice bow rider. It?s not a cruiser, it?s still a bow rider but it is into a good size cruising bow rider range for longer day trips or local cruises. It will serve you well for wakeboarding, tubing and recreational skiing. This is a good size boat and makes a bid dent in the water. Slalom skiers should not expect this boat to be their tournament dream boat.
Like the other new Bayliners, the boat had tons of storage, everywhere you would look. Even a cooler/ice chest and waste basket. Storage below the deck is very large and long. Easily a good spot for unruly passengers, water skis, boat hook, etc. The hatch is hinged and has a supporting pneumatic shock to keep it from flopping down on your head when you?re reaching into the cavernous storage area.
I like that it had snap-in carpet. I?d leave it at home for most regular boating. For families with kids and food on board, snap-in carpet that can easily snap-out for the day is a great feature. A soda or juice spill can make for a real nasty stain on carpet but can just get hosed out the scuppers if it falls on a fiberglass deck. If you?re going cruising and want the ?wall to wall? carpet feel, just pop it back in. It?s a great accessory.
This model features a very innovative engine compartment access system. The cover is in three parts. When you open it people on the dock think you?re boat is a ?Transformer? because so much of it is moving someplace else. The reason for the three parts was to allow the new feature of the walk-through passageway in the center of the sun deck. Pop off the center section of the sun deck pad and there is a nice non-skid walkway from the swim platform to the cockpit. The hatches were well supported and really gave fantastic access to the engine and other components in the engine compartment. Aft of the engine compartment is a roomy integral swim platform with a shower kit installed. Just like the Bayliner 205, this boat featured an extended swim platform that makes for easy access for swimmers and quieter idling. The seating in the cockpit is a ?surround? pattern. Kind of like a sectional sofa in your family room. There?s plenty of seating and it?s well padded. You can easily move the padding and have places to walk/step on fiberglass to enter or exit the boat so you don?t always walk on nice clean seats. Bayliner should add some tabs and snaps to the aft most ends of the seat pads though. Underway, and with no one sitting on them, they had a tendency to become partially airborne. It was surprising to see them attempt get sucked out of the boat by the air moving through the boat at speed. They looked like the air brakes on a jet (you know, the ones that lift up from the top of the wings when you land). They wouldn?t really get sucked out because they are hinged at the front ends but a simple snap would keep them in place.
This boat has a similar dash arrangement to the 205. A feature I liked. The console hood keeps sun off the instruments and the little shelf is there for your glasses or GPS. As the boats in the line get larger they become more finished as well. Below the steering wheel is finished and incorporates an inspection/access hatch to the back side of the instrument panel and steering mechanism. The test boat was equipped with the premium sound system, just like the 205. The sound folks went nuts on speakers for this boat. If it?s there, you have to try it so we did. The satellite service gave us a wide selection of music to select from so we played with that too. The boat has speakers in the bow riding area, the cockpit and even in the transom, facing aft. Does the skier or tuber really need to hear tunes? I?m not sure but they definitely will with his system. Audiophiles, you?ll like it. Bring your MP3 ?cause you can hook that in too.
Because this is a larger boat with greater freeboard, the seat at the helm has a bolster feature. You can set or rest against it for comfort and security yet keep your head above the top of the windscreen. The cockpit has a lot of leg/foot room for passengers in the two bucket seats or on the rear bench seat. There?s more storage and cup holders a plenty. The even include a rather silly accessory that gets more in the way than being useful. It?s a movable, double cup holder. Imagine two pockets for cups (cans, etc.) in a vinyl throw pillow about the size of a football with a board stapled to the bottom. The board sticks out about four or five inches at one end of the throw pillow so you can stick it under the seat back of the bolster seat; or maybe sit on it. This ?innovation? can be left on shore. Or, stick it in one of the handy storage areas. The last thing is does is hold your beverage in place. But, odds are, this would the worst experience from your purchase of this boat. And that ain?t bad.
Looking forward toward the bow riding area, there is a nice feature for cruising. There?s a little folding door that acts as a wind block in the companionway between the bow riding passenger area and the cockpit. It goes from the floor to the bottom of the windscreen. Some builders supply you with a canvass cover for that companionway. The little door is a nice idea to keep wind out of the main cockpit underway and handy to open and close when needed. The companionway door on this boat squeaked a bit under way. We detected that the squeaking was coming from where the door meets the bulkhead on the drivers side, when closed (the hinge is on the passenger side bulkhead). But that?s an easy fix with a little foam tape or those handy plastic, sticky buttons. The seat and seat backs in the bow area were comfortable and supportive in the right places. There?s storage below the seats and behind the seats with their backs to the windscreen bulkhead. The snap-in carpet goes all the way forward too. Just like at the stern, there?s a removable section of the seat at the point of the bow so you can walk on the anti-skid fiberglass to step to the bow to enter or exit. And guess what they put under that handy step? yup, more storage or you can use it as a cooler.
It?s nice to see these thoughtful features to help reduce damage to seat cushions from walking on them. A boater must have infiltrated the engineering department at Bayliner because these folks think like boaters, not just boat designers. Again, just like on the 205 (probably our favorite boat of the 11 we tested) Bayliner added stainless steel grab rails and integrated them into the gunwales in the bow riding area. They?re great to hang on to and hang your fenders on.
Some folks will like to use this size boat to take friends and family to local swimming beaches around their favorite boating areas. This size boat handily accommodates beaching at the bow. It has a very handy bow ladder secured under a molded cover. Again, good boater friendly design ideas.
The Bayliner folks showed us photos of this boat with the wakeboard tower, the test boat did not have that option. We saw photos of the boat with the bimini too. The test boat had the hardware for the bimini but we were too lazy to install it for the test. I?m a big fan of bimini tops. They leave room for you to walk around and give good shade so you can be out on the water longer. Most are built well enough to stay standing while running.
If you take a look at the ?08 225 and this redesigned ?09 225 you?ll see the Bayliner folks have been busy. With input from us FORUMS members, other owners and with boating minded designers, they?re delivering boats more boaters will consider
Overall this is one great boat for the money.
MSRP 39,598
