Anyone Know When They Are Set to Announce 2026 Models?

[BeepBeep]

Would you buy a pre-production 2026?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Honestly, the direct competition for all Yamaha "wake boats" is now the Kyma lineup. And while the 29' has that boat beat on size if you want a surf boat that can also do big water, at that price point, you're better off with a Kyma.

What really disappoints me every year about Yamaha Boats are that, with their bikes and utv's, they are LOCKED in with the customer and their wants and desires. With the boats, it's like, not only don't the read a f'ing thing online, but they seem completely blind to actual user experiences.

Need further proof? Go look at the detail on the Yamaha UTV or ATV or motorcycle website. And then we get the boat site - which is devoid of anything but platitudes for chumps.

A 29' "wakeboat" with zero details on it... for 200k+. Marketing strategy = trust me bro

One of the big differences between the UTV, ATV and motorcycle groups is that those groups, delineated by product and the models within the product line are all focused on a particular type of rider, the cruiser guys are a lot different from the adventure bike guys and they’re different from the MX guys. So the different products / models can be tailored to that particular discipline. There is of course some cross over. And that is just in the motorcycle line up. ATV’s have the same wants and needs from different riders, the sport guys want something fast with lots of wheel travel, the utility guys want something reliable and smooth riding.. typically motorcycle guys, especially the off road types, are quite independently self sufficient. These off road riders for the most part ride rain or shine, in fact, a lot of them like the inclement weather to ride in. And yes, the have great detail on their websites for things like weight, suspension travel, rake and trail etc.. those things that the avid enthusiast knows how those things will affect how the bike handles and feels. I once did a psych work up on different types of motorcyclists and their motorcycles for one of the big time movie execs which was fun…

When you get to boats, well, you’ve got a given hull, and you can put a different top cap on it, bow rider vs FSH (family sport hybrid for those still thinking it stands for fish) for example. Then of course there is the wake series which has its own hull design in a given length and is relatively specialized in its usage.

Point being, the customers that buy boats can be wildly different from buyer to buyer, and while some like the micro view of the boats in terms of spec’s, a lot of them just want to put gas in them and go. Take the add for the 29’ SD boat, those people have put in the work and now they just want to enjoy life on the water with their friends, that’s the target audience.

The typical wake boat guy has his own set of wants and needs that are far different than the family guy with the bow rider. Yes, I can see where having the amount of ballast weight would be nice to know, or at least how much weight of ballast there is, but I do not recall that spec being on the recent model wake boats, just the mention of ballast. I could totally be wrong on that point. Something that’s missing from the specs Yamaha puts out that matters to me is fuel consumption numbers, at least some basic ones like with X amount of people and X amount of gear, but that would lead to people crying about those numbers being off because they do not understand DA or the basic concept of how weight, wind and sea conditions affect performance..

If you want gnats ass details go buy a Grady White, their boats have incredible documentation including where the raceways are for the wiring and such. But, GW’s smallest boat, the 218 adventure https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2025-grady-white-adventure-218-9452342/ that has a small cabin and single 200 Yamaha outboard is going to run you close to $200K by the time you pay sales tax and registration. For sure it is a fear no evil boat with some great amenities but you’re going to pay about a $100K more. Just tossing this in here for comparison. One can go and look at comparable wake boats, bow riders, center consoles etc to get a cost / features comparison for other boats and from other manufacturers.

Yes it would be great if there were more deets on the website, frankly there should be. There are a lot of other gripes people can have, its easy to point out the shortcomings, and I’ve pointed this out before people rarely take to the net to talk about how great something is, but just as when I was a supervisor at work and had to fill out annual evaluations of my staff, I evaluated them on the SUM of their performance not the SOME of their performance. Yeah my boat has some short comings that I have addressed and made the boat work for my own wants and needs, but overall in five years of ownership, I’ve probably spent close to 2500 hours on my boat thus far, which is a lot more time that the 700 engine hours would indicate, the boat has “consistently exceeded” expectations.