KENNESAW, Ga., April 26, 2006 - Beginning July 1, Yamaha Marine Group will offer a two-year or three-year limited warranty on all Yamaha rigging components when those components are part of a power system package the company defines as "PowerMatched."
The move, announced last week at a meeting of Yamaha boat builder partners in Atlanta, is part of the company's on-going effort to provide complete power systems to complement Yamaha outboards.
With the PowerMatched designation, Yamaha boat builder partners will equip their boats with Yamaha key switches, control boxes, control cables, electrical harnesses, 10-micron filters, gauges and propellers. When a boat is PowerMatched, the warranties of the components extend to match the warranty of the outboard, two years for 2-stroke outboards and three years for 4-stroke outboards.
"We think many of our boat builder partners already see the value of a systems approach to marine power, and we think they will want to make their boats 'PowerMatched' using Yamaha rigging," said Ben Speciale, Yamaha Marine Group Vice President, Operations and Planning.
The warranty decision comes just three months after Yamaha merged marine rigging and parts operations into the Yamaha Marine Group. Both decisions support the company's goal to raise already high levels of customer satisfaction associated with Yamaha outboard products.
According to Yamaha's own CSI surveys, boats using PowerMatched rigging components rate approximately 3 percent higher in customer satisfaction than boats that do not.
Industry-wide, performance and customer satisfaction issues emerge when an outboard is not properly integrated with the boat's other power train components.
"Now we can offer our customers a warranty that matches the engine warranty for everything between the key switch and the propeller," said Joan Maxwell, CEO of Regulator. "This is a very valuable tool for us at Regulator and a benefit to our customers."
After the boat builder specifies PowerMatched, the dealer verifies the use of the components in a report to Yamaha at the time of sale, which then activates the extended warranty on the components.
In addition to the PowerMatched warranty announcement, Yamaha this week introduced two new components to complement its line of rigging and parts. Yamaha's new mini-10 ten-micron filter, designed specifically for boats using 115 horsepower or smaller outboards, will hit the market just in time to meet the growing challenge of fuel contamination associated with the switch to ethanol from MTBE in gasoline.
Yamaha also announced a new propeller called Reliance. While primarily for use with Yamaha's F150 engine, it will provide excellent all-around performance in applications for outboards up to 300 horsepower. It is available in pitches from 15" to 21" in right-hand rotation. Left-hand rotation is available in pitches 17" to 21".