Yamaha Moving on Many Fronts
Jim Shepherd
from The Fishing Wire
Spending 24 hours with the top officials at Yamaha’s Marine Group makes it easier to get enthusiastic about the immediate future of the boating industry. Arguably among the upper echelon of technical innovation, Yamaha continues their pursuit of improvement across virtually every element of their product categories.
Seven outboards
From their smallest 8 horsepower to massive quad engine arrays on their newest iteration of their Helm Master system for boats 40 feet and up in length, there are pushes that they believe will continue the gains the company has seen in the overall outboard market.
But it’s not just motors where they’re making big changes. Their propeller business is expected to crank out 50,000 + props this year- with new pitches across the line. Those varietals were added to the lines because with changes in some Yamaha engines -and additions of new ones- have changed what the believe are optimal prop/engine combos.
“We’re excited,” says Marine Group president Ben Speciale, “what we’re seeing since the great recession says good things.”
Those things include boating consumers are coming back into the market. And, Speciale says, when knowledgeable boaters come back, they “buy up” into boats that include improvements ranging from multi-screen fish-finding displays placed at each fishing position to better furnishings, higher quality seating and an overall ramp-up in performance in the pleasure and cruiser classes.
“Maybe the biggest mystery we see,” Speciale told the crowd of writers, “is the fact that in the new economy, one of the things fishermen have to have on their boats is a $2,000 anchor to hold their boat in six feet or less of water.”
Ranger and Yamaha
At low speed, it’s not so obvious (Above), but throttle up Ranger’s Model 620 FS deep-v boat when it’s equipped with Yamaha’s new 25-inch shaft model VF250XA engine and you’ll understand -immediately- the power and performance increase.
The line about the power pole type anchor was funny, but indicative of the fact that boaters don’t thing less is more. Today, they want more: more boat, more features, and, more importantly (if you’re Yamaha), more performance from their boats.
Research shared with media invited to their freshwater preview held at their testing center near Chattanooga, Tennessee included information showing a demand for more advanced technology. Technology, Speciale says, that is offered in the four-stroke engine, but not the “older” 2-stroke technology.
Two stroke engines, Speciale says, is a techology Yamaha is “out of” in the United States.
As part of their overall strategy, Yamaha officials say they’ll continue to follow their roadmap for success: offeri high-quality products with dependability that create a high customer value for those products, a customer-focused approach to sales and service to build longevity into their customers, and a continued focus on what Speciale says is their “core competency” – the premium positions of the marine industry.
Yamaha also took the occasion to roll out new initiatives in the political world. Having already held more than 100 meetings with members of Congress, Yamaha says it’s expanding their push for three goals they feel critical to the overall health of the recreational fishing and boating industries.
Reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Act with an emphasis on fair treatment for recreational fishermen when it comes to fishing quotas,
A permanent cap of ten percent (10%) on ethanol -and support of HR Bill 1462, and
Engine regulations that “make sense”.
Additionally, Yamaha has created an Annual Roundtable on a National Recreational fishing and is pushing those advocacy issues via its 1,000 dealers and partner boat builders.
We’ll be covering much more of the new Yamaha product lines in other stores, but the positive tone Fishing Wire editor Frank Sargeant and I heard at Yamaha last week is one that we’re hearing across the entire industry.
That’s definitely news worth reporting.
As always, we’ll keep you posted.