Yamalemon

Log of the QT – YAMALEMON Spring ‘93

The wires had been taken off and the little sticky pads had been removed.  I was left alone, lying face up on the narrow paper covered table, waiting for the wooden stick, rubber hammer, cold plastic cone and probing fingers.  This was the epitome of situations that require moving the mind to another location.

I closed my eyes and drifted to the southern end of Core Creek in NC, settling on the ICW in my small outboard amidst a school of playful porpoise.  I left the friendly creatures to stern and slowly headed south, following the day marks in my mind toward Moorhead City.  On an impulse, I had just swung hard to port, entering Gallants Channel toward Beaufort, when the doctor entered the room.  As the door opened, it emitted a subtle grinding noise that made me sit bolt upright on the examining table.

The doctor asked, "Did I startle you?"

"I thought I had run aground on the sand bar," I replied.

He said, "It's probably a good thing you came when you did..."

My EKG was fine, so were my tonsils, reflexes, heart/lungs and well, the rest was OK too.  My annual exam turned out to be very routine.  In explaining my 'grounding' to the doc, I discovered he was a boater too.

I lamented to the doc, that my wife and I lived aboard a sailboat in Beaufort NC for a couple years in the 70's and we really missed life on the water, but I recounted the recent return there in my little 16' outboard cuddy with a couple of guys.  We put in at Sea Gate on Adams Creek, and answered the call of Ocracoke, braving 30+ open miles of a very choppy Pamlico Sound.  The chop was tolerable downwind, but on the return we pounded so bad that it was necessary to hold on with both hands until we were back in the shelter of Adams Creek -- coming down off the plane to ease the pounding was not an option, although it was occasionally dictated to allow beer in and out.  We spent 3 days and 2 nights aboard in the area...there's nothing that compares to getting up early and watching a sunrise while swinging on the hook at Cape Lookout.

My wife and I get up early several days a week too, but not to watch a sunrise.  We go swimming at the "Y".  It's good exercise, but even more important it saves the abuse my ears would take if I stayed in bed while she went.  The alarm goes off at 5:20am.  I drag my butt out of the sack and on the way to the bathroom I make a "U" turn, go to the window and pull the side of the shade back.  I peer out into darkness, but I can faintly see my boat parked next to the house, proudly perched on her trailer, begging me to take her out and get her bottom wet.  It's only my bottom that gets wet that morning, but during the swim I plan the next cruise.

Occasionally my wife will catch me standing next to the boat, or looking at it out the window. I'll be totally mesmerized, contemplating projects that could be done, or gear that would come in handy, or where she'll take me next -- and when.  My wife will say, "Boy, I wish there was something in my life that could give me the pleasure you get from that boat!"

These are few of what should have been many examples of what my boat is to me.  The reality is, I haven't had one totally carefree day of boating since I took delivery of my new boat.  Most of my 'boating' time has been spent looking for a dealer who would/could fix the motor, or waiting to have repairs done or worrying if it would ever be right or finding ways to live with the problem(s) or making excuses to business associates and family for why the motor did not work as it should.

The boat was originally purchased with the idea of putting several 15'11" cuddys (with sleeping accommodations for 2, porta-potty,  fresh water tank and an economical outboard) in charter service in a couple locations in the Carolinas.  Yamaha was chosen to power the boat because dealers who sell Yamaha say Yamaha is far and away the best outboard.  They also point out that Yamaha is #1 in Customer Satisfaction.

As delivered in Aug '95, the motor response was flat for the last 1/3 of the throttle travel and the motor 'rattled' above 2/3's throttle without any change in top end.  I asked the selling dealer about this 5 or 6 times over a 4 month period. He assured that everything was working as it should, even after physically attending to the boat for the post break-in service.  Additionally, during the first 3 months with my brand new boat, the motor developed a miss at the top end and on one trip it began backfiring so badly I was almost stranded 4 hours from port.  I was able to limp back by disconnecting the middle plug wire.  It also began backfiring and dying at idle.

 In January, even though the dealer told me he had lake tested the boat and the motor was turning 5,600rpm @ WOT with the 11" pitch prop he put on, I convinced him that I had to be hitting the 6,200rpm rev limiter @ 2/3's throttle.  Not having a tach, my theory was based on a GPS reading of 22mph @ WOT and Yamaha specs of 22mph max for an 11" pitch.  While he was fixing the motor to run on 3 cylinders again, the dealer installed a tach and a 15" pitch prop.  The first time I took the boat out, it turned 6,000rpm.  I wrote a couple notes to the dealer asking if it was OK to turn 6 grand when the manual said 5,600, but he never responded. I finally bought a 17" pitch myself and brought the WOT R's down to 5,600 with a top speed of over 32mph.  The miss @ WOT and dying at idle continued, but I figured I'd just find another dealer to work out these problems.

WRONG!  I called 3 shops recommended by Yamaha Customer Service in California.  One said, "Bring it in, within 2 weeks we will let you know when we can get to it.  Another said they were very busy and could get to it in October (this was in January) and the last Yamaha shop said they wouldn't look at it at all because they didn't sell it.  I went to the, "We'll let you know in 2 weeks" place, and they didn't sell Yamaha and didn't have any Yamaha stuff on the shelves, so I figured I'd just nurse the motor along until October.

During that 'nursing' period:

1.      The pilot project (for the charter operation) was canceled because I couldn't get the motor to perform for the investors.

2.      The motor died regularly at idle -- this is especially exciting when it dies just before you put it into reverse coming into the dock or trailer.

3.      Low speed performance was very sloppy - did you ever try to pull a skier when just after you slam it open it coughs and almost stops?

4.      I packed up the car and family, drove 300+ miles to the coast, and then couldn't get the motor started to get it off the trailer.

I decided after the tainted vacation that I'd just take the boat in and wait as long as it took.  To make a long story short:

I dealt with Yamaha Customer Service in California 3 times by mail.  They responded only the first time, when I asked about local dealers and specs on WOT and idle.

I talked on the phone with Yamaha Customer Service at least 3 times.  This is a quote from the Yamaha Customer Service Rep in California after I asked him what he'd do if he was in my position of not being able to get a new motor to run correctly, "You're not putting this on me...it's your problem and you'll have to find your own solution."  I asked about talking to someone else, but Yamaha doesn't want that to happen - they make sure you always get the same rep.

I 'worked' with the two Yamaha Regional Sales Managers (Carolina/Virginia and Western) while the boat was at 2 different Yamaha dealers; both dealers said the motor was fixed, but when I took it out, there was little or no difference.

Experiences with a Yamaha Tech and Yamaha dealers on the Internet were fruitless.

I quit receiving the Customer Survey forms that Yamaha evidently bases their boast of being #1 in Customer Satisfaction on.  I guess if they know you aren't happy, they don't send you the survey.

All told,

·        The boat was at 5 different authorized Yamaha repair facilities; with multiple visits to 3 of them.

·        I put over 1,500 miles on the car/trailer going back and forth to authorized Yamaha repair facilities.

·        In 5 months, the boat was in the shop over 100 days.

·        The motor still regularly died at idle and it was still sloppy at slow speeds.

Yamaha deprived me of the pleasures of a spanking new boat, not to mention the payments and interest that I have made on a boat and motor that for every day on the water, spent well over 5 days in the shop.

You might argue that my outboard motor experience is a rare occurrence for a Yamaha owner, but the folks at Boat/US Consumer Protection will not support you – their books contain many similar stories.

I finally decided that life was too short to mess with Yamaha and told the dealer who had the boat that I would stick with Yamaha only if they replaced my motor with a 50HP 4 stroke, and I would even pay the difference.  The dealer countered by saying he had lake tested the boat (again) and it was now fixed correctly.  He admitted that the 17” pitch prop was correct for the boat, not the 15” as he and the Regional Sales Manager had previously insisted was the only one that would work.  The dealer also admitted that even though he had previously advised that the motor needed to come up a hole on the transom because he couldn’t get the rpms up, that the motor was in the right hole and after reworking the carbs it would in fact turn 5,600 with the 17” pitch prop, (under the advisement of Yamaha, he had pulled the tach to test it’s accuracy).

I met the dealer at the lake to take delivery, so he could personally show me his success with the motor.  I asked why it stumbled on acceleration.  He said, “They all do that.”  I asked him why it was still popping occasionally at idle.  He said that was nothing to be concerned about.  I asked him why it was idling so high and he said, “When Yamaha says 850, they really mean 1100.

The Yamaha C60 pushed the  boat to 32mph (via a GPS) at 5,600 rpm with a 17" pitch prop when it was running well (which wasn’t often).  The response was quite crisp even up to the last 1/2" of throttle.  The performance was the same with the boat fully loaded or completely empty.  The best guess at miles per gallon was about 5 1/2.

My new motor is a Honda 50.  I paid more for the Honda because I wanted SERVICE – Boat/US Consumer Protection said there were no outstanding complaints against Honda.  The Honda 50 pushes the same boat to 30 mph (via a GPS) at 6,000 rpm with a 13" pitch prop.  The response with the Honda is slower – she takes longer to get out of the hole, and the Honda is more load sensitive than the 2 stroke.  The Honda gets over 7 1/2 mpg.

The Yamaha was loud, smelly and wild.  It smoked, drank excessively and hung around with the wrong people (those would be the people at authorized Yamaha service facilities who couldn’t/wouldn’t get the motor working properly).  The Yamaha was uncivilized and unpredictable - if this is your kind companion, by all means, indulge.

The Honda is well mannered.  It doesn’t smoke or drink or hang around at repair facilities.  It is quiet, reliable, predictable, dependable and a pleasure to be around.

After my experience with Yamaha, I’ll never again buy anything that has any kind of Yamaha label on it.

To be sure, the Honda wasn’t golden right out of the box, but it didn’t take long to get it that way.  I’d buy another Honda tomorrow.

Nick in Spartanburg, SC