Re: Yamaha jet boats- worthy?
Well I finally got around to visiting the Yamaha dealer this last weekend, and was sadly disappointed. The following is not intended as a condemnation of the brand, but simply my observations. And to any of the Yamaha owners, my apologies if I made incorrect observations or am just off base all together. Fell free to enlighten me
FWIW my modest benchmark is an 07 Regal 2000, and while far from yacht quality and the second smallest of the Regal line up, I have been pretty happy with it's fit, finish, QC and reliability. And yes, I've studied several brands over the years, albeit on the smaller end of the scale.
Yamaha positives-
Aesthetics! The Yamahas are
great looking boats IMO. We were particularly taken by the AR240's striking graphics and color scheme relative to the sedate Limited S, though it's tower was awesome!
Engine compartment. Yamaha is an engine company and it shows under the hatch. The engines "look" to be all business. Tidy and well laid out though a little busy with all the electronic panels back there. Lots of room to work. Easy filter access.
Interior. Excellent seating lay out and space utilization. Tons of storage, obviously on the 240 but very good on the 210 too.
Good ladders front and rear. Good **** pit and dash layout. Good under-dash design- no touchable/splashable or dangling wires ( they were in the storage compartment aft of the dash and behind a nice "drape") Removable table (Garelick?) looked of be of good quality. Gas tank, ski locker, and engine hatchs of solid fiberglass and latches worked well.
Negatives-
Fit and finish and quality control. This was the deal breaker for me. Examples-
Seats- all without hinges. You have to wiggle and wrestle them in and out of place- a PITA and reportedly rarely subject to flying away on the highway, though once in place they fit well. Vinyl is thin and stiff, though seat foam was good.
Head door- made of poly carbonate or some other plastic that was a silghtly different tone and texture as the surrounding fiberglass(?) On two models the door was warped and had variable tolerances. Seems that with computerized saws they could cut a door out of the tub, finish the edges and reinstall with hardware?
Walk-through/storage door thin, lightweight hinges and the "stop" that it fits into looked like and afterthought. Lame rubber latch.
Wind shield- this was a biggie for me. While all walk through windshields are inherently flexy, these were some of the worst I've seen, and with poor/angled tolerances when closed and bent-tabbed dash supports they looked to be something from Tractor Supply or Toys R Us. The bumpers for when open seemed haphazardly located and half ineffective. They should be embarrassed about this whole windshield spec.
Engine compartment/bilge area. Though I had a hard time taking my eyes off of the engines, especially those HO's, I couldn't help but notice the sloppy composite cuts where the exhaust exited to the waterbox and busy bilge floor shapes that looked to be difficult to clean and had many many places that pooled water, though it was gel coated (per the sales man, or was it a composite instead of glass??- looked too smooth to be the later)
Hull.- while this might might be a minor thing or just how things are done these days, the hull above the rub rail and into the interior (with the exception of the hatches) sounded as if it was made of a composite vs fiberglass ( or just very thin glass?) - not substantial sounding to the knuckle-knock test. Not may high stress areas I guess, but I just used to the feel of solid fiberglass both inside and out. Probably a weight as well as cost thing.
So in summation I've concluded that the Yamaha are not going to be for me. Conceptually they are great and they have a solid drive system, but the lack of attention to detail and assembly qc are something that this AR small boater can not deal with. Yes, though I didn't even test drive one, but that wouldn't change my opinion on the whole QC and perception of quality/lack there of. Unfortunately, after more than an hour sitting in and poking around in a few models, the Yamahas did seem like giant PWCs to me.
Now if in '14 Sea Ray brings their vast boat building experience and resources to the table with a relatively good/better QC, and if they have done their jet hull design homework, and the Webber engine/drive is on par,
and if at a competitive price point, I believe that Yamaha will be losing a lot of market share very quickly.
Maybe I just need a
Hinckley T29R :encouragement: As if LOL
