but he never had to deal with Yamaha USA.

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I've been told that God hates the sin, not the sinner. But he never had to deal with Yamaha USA. The Litany of sins is long: Did your Australian Boat (or South African) come with Yamahas, and you want warranty work? Crate them up and ship them back. Want to buy replacements for your old Yamahas, but there's no dealer on the water with sailboat access? "Sorry, installation has to be done by certified technicians." Call Yamaha USA to ask for a part under warranty with a broken Pin? No, it has to be verified by a Yamaha Certified Technician at an Authorized Yamaha Dealership. But sir, they don't do offsite work, and I will have to hire someone younger and healthier to pull the engines, and who is going to pay for that? "Well that is the perogative of the dealer...."
Let me be sure I understand this: Yamaha has no way of dealing with boats that don't go on trailers, so that a mechanic can wander out and say "Yup, the pin broke." "Yes sir, in this particular frame of reference this is true. " "Okay, I'll just buy a new cable. How much is it?" "$224, but I can't sell it to you, you have to get it from an authorized dealer." "They don't have it." Yes sir, they have to order it from me." "But I can order on the web for less money can't I?" Now sir, there's no reason to get abusi{click} I hung up to prevent just that.

So I cruise the web, and low and behold, there are prices all over the place, but not a single one has stock, they all need to order it from California. And then I have to pay for shipping from them. Why not be patient, and work within the system? Because in 8 days I had guests to take to the Appetizers and Desserts Cruise, an event I did not want to miss. (If you've seen me you know why!)

Well, we went anyway. And I had to back into a 25 boat circular raft while paying out anchor chain from the wrong bow, with the wrong crosswind, on a single engine. I am totally amazed I didn't scratch or dent anything. An I waited to be the last boat to leave the next morning (burp) full of Appetizers and Desserts! I've four more scheduled (and paid for) events to go to on one engine before that $200 part comes in because of one broken pin in the electrical cable assembly.

I have explained all this to God, who must still be thinking about it because he hasn't said a word back. I did not suggest a strategic lightning bolt at the Factory (which is in France, anyway) because nobody else makes this just-right engine, but I am wondering about the efficacy of a plague of Locusts infesting a few policy makers some where.

[carib sailor]

I remain hopeful that Yamaha and their dealer stands behind their products.

[Cat Tales]

You can be optomistically hopefully that Yamaha will stand behind their product, but please don't hold your breath. When we purchased our motors in 2006, a faulty CDI Unit had us inquiring about warranty work within two months of owning the engines. Our response from Yamaha mirrored Sandy's experience exactly. The only additional caveat they through in was that our engines were not installed by a certified Yamaha technician. As if a Yamaha technician would have installed our engines in such a way that the original CDI Unit would still be working today. We live in SE Florida, one of the premier boating capitals of the world. Any search in the phone book for Yamaha techs will result in multiple pages of mechanics. Not a single one would make a house call for warranty work if they had not originally installed the engine. An original inquiry in 2006 about them installing the engines required us to trailor the boat to their facility (again, no house calls). After explaining to them that our sailing catamaran cannot be transported over land, their only response was that I will have to figure out another way to get the boat to them. Ridiculous!!!

The engines we currently own will last us some time, but when it comes time to repower we will NOT consider another Yamaha engine because of their inability to deliver on their warranty promise.

Chris

[Dan White]

For those of you on the Chesapeake, there is a Yamaha authorized dealer just north of Baltimore: Beacon Light. I have used them for repairs and maintenance. They come to the boat, and if necessary remove the engine and transport it back to their shop. They have been very good to deal with. (Notice I didn't say "cheap"; however, their charges were reasonable.)

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Thanks Dan!