At the Yamaha boat tour

[Cyclonegrey]

Guys. At the Yamaha boat tour in Toms River. Any last minute requests?

some general impressions:
The 255x stern seat pads are not attached well at all. Two small screws hold a retaining strip that the pad slides into. On the tour boat one of the screws pulled out and the pad is loose and the screw has scratched up the gel coat.
the sharp lower edge of the tower. It’s not sharp but the powder coat on the edge has already chipped away.
The unsupported window. The material seems more like plexi than real glass. Very flexible.

 

[Cyclonegrey]

Some pics

 

[Jim Davis]

Thanks for the info! You see anything else that looked odd?

 

[Cyclonegrey]

Some additional thoughts from my time with the tour boats.
First thing I’m not a fishing person but the FSH was my favorite. Not the best for family but I would rock it no problem. The fit and finish was tighter and the vinyl felt higher quality.

I didn’t spend much time in the 195. It’s a nice boat but smaller than I want. My wife didn’t like the bow space at all. Again vinyl quality was lower than I expected.

The 255xd they have on the tour is beat. It’s been played harder than a organ on gospel night. It’s hard to judge the mfg quality vs the abuse from the savages. The stern seats attachement is a weak attachment point and I can see being a common issue. The head compartment was almost unusable for an adult. The way the door swing out and how the top of the door is shaped requires some yoga poses to climb down into. THE SEATS!! Ugh. They are were trashed and loose. One was missing bolts the other was loose in the front to rear slider. The port recliner also has arm rests that tilt back with the back of the seat so when in “observer” mode if you recline the arm rests stick straight up. The stern adjustable seats felt pretty sturdy on the sliders. I really would have liked to see the Fixed seat config. Is it me or are Yamaha captains chairs mounted lower than normal? Not a fan of the galley as it makes the captains area feel tigh and oddly the bright blue cooler looks like a Walmart after though instead of an integrated package and clashed with the black green theme. Why not plain white?

The 275 is HUGE. I loved the size but again it suffered at the hands of too many unaccompanied minors and is beaten up a little. This is out of my league so I didn’t spend too much time on it. The aft underwater seating is the next big thing. I can see little swim up bars being developed that seat 3 per side te he he!

Some overall thoughts.
I liked the Yamaha boats but they were not presented well. Yamaha could have done a better job on presentation. As an example the head of the 275 was stuffed with the boats cover and a porta potti in its cardboard box. Why not set it up for the best presentation? You could not test any of the touch screens or listen to the sound systems. I really wanted to see the screen brightness and glare. The vinyl quality on the yamahas is not as plush as a lot of other boats I’ve been on. I can’t speak to longevity but I was at a boat show the same day and the vinyl quality felt thinner and less premium. I guess you could also say that about the controls as it’s just a black screen you don’t get the sensory input of a tactile switch or button. No gage faces to admire. I really like the Yamahas layouts but compared to some of the boats we saw at the show it may be a tough sell for the wife. She doesn’t understand the hp/$ and low maint. She just wants to lounge in comfort.

 

[tkeru408]

Thanks for your impressions. I think you're spot on with the abuse that prototype 255XD has taken. When it came through here a few weeks ago, I was talking with the rep and I asked him about some of the things you also saw. He said literally thousands of people have crawled through the boat so it's starting to show the wear and tear. When I asked about the ding on the tower (the one in your picture) he said it happened when the tower got dropped at one point--not normal wear and tear stuff but something they were doing with it.

The 255FSH appeared to be in much better shape overall, either because not as many people have been crawling through it or because there are just fewer things on it to mess up than all the stuff on the 255XD.

It's crazy they haven't fixed that stern seat, but have just let it scratch the boat all up. It wasn't like that when I saw it on Sep 10th. Despite the beating that boat has taken, I think the stern seats seem plenty sturdy on my 252SE. I guess time will tell on how well they hold up, but I'm not expecting any issues.

 

[906Tony]

Thanks for the review, these boats kinda remind me of a camper on the water in terms of fit and finish in some areas. But they are overall an awesome boat!