I would personally love to see a 16’. Think I would be load of fun and a market Yamaha has not exploited.
The entry level boats were a hot topic back when the 190 series came about. Obviously there was very little interest on this board as most already owned 21, 23 and 24 models. Those that owned the LS and Exciters were interested for sure, as well as those that were looking to step into a boat from the Waverunner world.
It was discussed why Yamaha would release a 19' single engine boat, and I thought it was obvious, as an entry. And obviously after the few years, they have brought many new folks to the Yamaha boating world and this family here.
I agree that a single/dual engine 16' boat has a market. We saw how the SeaDoo Speedster line did well. Not well enough for BRP to keep them around. So there may be much more to that story. It would be interesting to see the Scarab 165 numbers. It's tough to justify tooling up a new line if the market is way too competitive.
At this time, Yamaha is having little trouble moving the boats they currently have in production. They have limited their engine production to a couple models, and limited their hull designs. This is good business.
I am a very avid Yamaha fan across multiple product lines. And this is a strong business case for Yamaha across the market. They are only designing new and building engines that they can use in more than one product line, or outsource to other OEM's. They are also cutting back on lines that are too competitive and turning them into more of a boutique product or outsourcing it completely.
Snowmobiles are the primary example of this study. What they no longer wanted to import from Japan, they shifted to Arctic Cat/Textron and acted as an engine supplier. They are building around an engine that was originally used in their SXS market. They also OEM this engine to Textron in their Sleds and SXS. They announced that they would limit their own production of fully Yamaha sleds to spring orders only. And we are assuming these will be high quality, high performance and probably high priced boutique sleds that will be in very limited supply. This way, they can concentrate on quality and margins to stay profitable.
They are in a good place with boats. So don't expect them to stray too far on a totally new platform, unless the plan would be to use it across the entire line. Check out the FSH for example. I could be wrong, but I believe the bottom half of the hull follows current design in the runabout of the same size? And obviously the same engines.
As I mentioned, a 212SS with SVHO engines. Maybe a 195SS? But a 165 SVHO Pocket Rocket may trip some triggers. I don't feel the price range of the 190 series is entry level in my book. But with used ones dropping below $20K, they are attracting new boaters.
