I believe there's a lot of confusion--perhaps rightfully so--about the difference between how Yamaha works and how most other boat manufacturers and most car manufacturers work. The key here is that we as consumers ARE NOT ordering boats from Yamaha. Sorry in advance for the long post but let me explain it, as I understand it...
At the beginning of the model year, all of the Yamaha dealers put in their orders for the boats they want for that year. This is the one and only time they get to put in an order with the Yamaha factory. Yamaha then fulfills their orders by shipping them the boats they ordered throughout the model year (which typically runs ~Aug to June/July). The boats can literally show up anytime in that window and the dealer usually doesn't know when they're getting it until it's about to leave the factory (i.e. a couple days before it arrives)*. Remember, the dealer is the one that ordered the boat, not us. As customers, when we put a deposit down with a dealer all that means is the dealer is earmarking for us one of the boats they've already ordered. When they receive that boat, they call us up and say "Good news, your boat has arrived!" and we go there to take possession. Unlike the Corvette example above, Yamaha is not making a boat specifically for us; the Yamaha factory doesn't have our name and they don't have any idea who we are. This is why there's no tracking when "our" boat is going to show up.
For those wondering why Yamaha does it this way when it keeps the customers in the dark, remember this process worked really well in the pre-Covid era when dealers didn't typically have deposits in hand with customers lined up waiting on boats to arrive. Normally, the boats would just randomly show up throughout the model year and go into inventory on the salesroom floor until a customer walked by and decided they liked it and wanted to bring it home.
* SIDE NOTE: my boat arrived on a Friday morning last fall, my dealer found out on Thursday afternoon that it was being sent from the factory...literally less than 24 hours notice. This is typical for Yamaha dealers, they find out a boat is coming when they get invoiced for it which is usually when it's leaving the factory and heading their way but sometimes can be up to a couple weeks before it ships out. That's why I have to laugh when I read statements like "my dealer said it will be here in Q3"...I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that's a bunch of baloney. They have no real idea, they're just trying to tell you something because people want to hear something. On the flip side, this is also why you read statements like "My dealer side my boat was going to be here in Q3 but it's showing up next week!" At least they set a reasonable expectation and happened to under-promise and over-deliver in that case...something Yamaha dealers could use more of lately.