New Updated Images of Yamaha Manufacturing in Venore

[deubank1776]

For all of us wondering how the plant in Venore looks, here it is.
From when we last analyzed the photo... They have added more additions on the south side of the building. Added a drive to connect the building south of the plant and added the parking lot in-between the two. We can also see boats leaving the plant on semis. So they are being shipped out but unfortunately for us northerners, they are probably heading east, west, and south. Let us take a poll to see when we think the majority of us will get our "unicorn" boats. Oh, Mamayamaha.... can we have an update? Even if its the same stuff new day... It'd be nice to know you're still alive.

 

[SCP1]

For all of us wondering how the plant in Venore looks, here it is.View attachment 168220
From when we last analyzed the photo... They have added more additions on the south side of the building. Added a drive to connect the building south of the plant and added the parking lot in-between the two. We can also see boats leaving the plant on semis. So they are being shipped out but unfortunately for us northerners, they are probably heading east, west, and south. Let us take a poll to see when we think the majority of us will get our "unicorn" boats. Oh, Mamayamaha.... can we have an update? Even if its the same stuff new day... It'd be nice to know you're still alive.

I saw some Yamaha’s heading north through the Badger state last week.

 

[buckbuck]

@deubank1776 Are you able to tell us the source of the photo? Date taken?

 

[HangOutdoors]

That is a bing maps image it appears. Date can be months old but hard to tell since that info isn't readily available. Most satellite map images that google and bing provide are stitched together from multiple sources.

Here is a pretty cool 3d view. Check out the red shells.

Google Earth

 

[deubank1776]

@deubank1776 Are you able to tell us the source of the photo? Date taken?

This is most likely in recent months. There is a post that i was on that had images from months ago.

 

[Chrisbert]

Check out the differences in the facility on this older Google Maps photo. They've added more paved areas, and more building structure.

 

[Chrisbert]

That is a bing maps image it appears. Date can be months old but hard to tell since that info isn't readily available. Most satellite map images that google and bing provide are stitched together from multiple sources.

Here is a pretty cool 3d view. Check out the red shells.

Google Earth

What do they use the red shells for? Are they castings for overlaying the hull? Looks like a scrap pile.

 

[HangOutdoors]

No Idea.

 

[deubank1776]

What do they use the red shells for? Are they castings for overlaying the hull? Looks like a scrap pile.

I believe the red shells are unpainted fiberglass hulls. Yamaha boats are almost completely built by robots. Painted, and Cut. The dealer I got my 252sd from said that the robots even lay fiberglass. So I think that image was around the time they were messing with some of the cut patterns or painting patterns for better accuracy and different colors? So maybe that is a theory?

 

[Julian]

Gotta have someone in TN with a Drone to get us monthly shots of the plant! LOL!

 

[ripler]

Those red shells are sacrificial hulls used for testing the manufacturing process. They are only fiberglass and not painted and don't have gelcoat. They will be thrown away after the test, so it's cheaper than having a fully gel coated boat. I believe Yamaha is adding some injection foam into their hulls and injecting into these red liners makes it easy to see where the foam is flowing to and they can adjust their foaming process/formulation.

In a previous life I worked for a company that made polyurethane injection equipment and I did the engineering/start up of a machine for Boston Whaler. When we were doing start up they brought us a bunch of molds that had these red liners in them to do our testing and after we ruined them they would actually take a huge hole saw and drill holes in the hull. I won't tell the whole story, but you should have seen the looks we got from the higher ups the first time we were foaming a huge hull that was fully gel coated hull and production ready and we ruined it. There was only 1 hole where the foam was injected into and once you start to inject the foam you can not stop the process because the foam needs forced into every crevice in one pour and if you stop the foam starts to cure and you can't inject the mold twice.

You can see some of the same looking red hulls here at the Boston Whaler factory.

Google Earth

Here's a video of the machine and process, this machine poured foam at 1000lbs a minute, being a boater it was one of the coolest projects I worked on.

Boston Whaler Factory foaming process - YouTube

 

[motomandan]

Most likely the red shells are boat molds coated with reddish orange tooling gelcoat, Many companies use this color. Yamaha as well as most production boat companies do not "paint" their boats. Whatever color Gelcoat wanted is sprayed in the mold. Then fiberglass is sprayed in via chopper gun already mixed with resin or dry fiberglass mat is laid in and wetted with resin and rolled out. It all depends on the lamination schedule agreed upon between the designer and the manufacturer. When cured it is popped from the mold in whatever color was chosen. Then as in the case of Yamaha tape stripes are added.