New Cabin Cruiser

[primedoc]

Finally confirmed: Yamaha is currently building a new cabin cruiser, no jets but rather 2 or 3 outboards and 34 or 36 feet long. I get to see the completed prototype soon, but no pictures will be allowed. I'll update when I know more in two weeks.

 

[ACRDSPORT14]

i would guess 200k plus.

 

[Andy S]

Finally confirmed: Yamaha is currently building a new cabin cruiser, no jets but rather 2 or 3 outboards and 34 or 36 feet long. I get to see the completed prototype soon, but no pictures will be allowed. I'll update when I know more in two weeks.

It's not April 1st and it is on the internet so it must be true. Sounds like something similar to what they build/sell in Japan.

 

[Speedling]

Meh...
I designed a fast 25' catamaran with two sho motors that can probably be built for about 35,000.
Anyone got the motors for me? Lol
I hope to someday use my garage for building a model of it but honestly the real thing may never happen.

As far as what they actually come out with, i bet it is similar to what is overseas. Nice, but different tax bracket. Would make #bimini easy though!

 

[Volffas]

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[primedoc]

We are about to enter into a business partnership / contract with Yamaha (that's the reason we are taking the plant tour) so if they say no pictures then as much as I'd like to have some you can bet your ass that there will be no pictures!! LOL

 

[Shuck Water]

What happened to this? I was really hoping to see something about this from @Julian last week. Still in the works?

 

[Bruce]

@Shuck Water, there is a theory that if such a boat were to be released it would likely be announced at a large coastal boat show.

Hopefully it is still in the R&D stage. I would love a trailerable 28' cuddy cabin with a shallow draft and two or three jets under $100K. My guess is that this is going to be a larger boat with outboard installed internally in pods.

 

[Speedling]

@Shuck Water, there is a theory that if such a boat were to be released it would likely be announced at a large coastal boat show.

Hopefully it is still in the R&D stage. I would love a trailerable 28' cuddy cabin with a shallow draft and two or three jets under $100K. My guess is that this is going to be a larger boat with outboard installed internally in pods.

A trailerable 28' cuddy cabin under 100k is somewhat hard to find! However, lets say it was more of a cruiser and while it could plane out at say 20ish would probably top speed it at 35-40 mph, then you can build it with twin 1.8's non supercharched easily enough. This would probably benefit from a lower pitched prop and the 160mm jet drives for more thrust and less velocity. It would be a different market altogether than what we see here, but I do think that many of us would certainly be interested!

 

[Julian]

There was no discussion about a cabin cruiser at the media event. If they were to release something like that, they'd do it at one of the big boat shows where lots of media are already covering it....like the Miami boat show. They did show photos of the plant expansion at the media event, but it was so they could build more jet boats (so they said).

 

[Julian]

@primedoc says it won't be a jet, but rather an outboard.

 

[Speedling]

@primedoc says it won't be a jet, but rather an outboard.

I would assume that as well due to the Japanese cruiser they have.
There seems to be a large outboard push the last decade.

 

[Ziess21]

Sorry to bust everyone's bubble on this but it has officially been shelved. It was to be powered by outboards but just didn't make sense to compete against their existing outboard commercial consumers.

Now a jet version would be intriguing but probably not feasible...

 

[Shuck Water]

Well crap. This does bring up a question though. Why can't there be a 6 cyclinder engine with larger pumps to power a cruiser?

 

[soundshark]

They have been available in Japan for a while...

http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/marine/lineup/boat/premiumyachts/

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Sorry to bust everyone's bubble on this but it has officially been shelved. It was to be powered by outboards but just didn't make sense to compete against their existing outboard commercial consumers.

Now a jet version would be intriguing but probably not feasible...

Good call on Yamahas part. There's way too much competition in the states and they would get killed in this market.

 

[primedoc]

What happened to this? I was really hoping to see something about this from @Julian last week. Still in the works?

Yamaha was not our business partner at the time of my original post in this thread, however they now are a very large client and I have to be careful about what I say.


1.) Everything I said earlier was 100% true and confirmed

2,) Yamaha completed the first prototype (I saw it from a distance this summer while at the factory to take a tour) and it was on the lake, under it's own power and it was BIG.

3.) Production is still planned to continue, however in Japan rather than in the USA.

4.) There is / was a VERY good reason for the decision to not produce them in the USA. It had nothing to do with the boat itself, the manufacturing of the boat or anything really internal to Yamaha. It was other outside considerations that accounted for the move and I fully understand and appreciate why they did what they did. Wish I could say more, but rest assured that you would all agree that they did the right thing for the company long-term. As much as I wanted a "big boy" myself they did the right thing.

 

[primedoc]

Just saw @Ziess21 post. I guess the cat was already of the bag! LOL

 

[Murf'n'surf]

They have been available in Japan for a while...

http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/marine/lineup/boat/premiumyachts/

Kinda funny that they are using Volvo IPS500 drives and motors in their yacht line.