AMIF Awards triumph for Yamaha's F350 V8 outboards

by Bob Wonders on 17 Jun 2008 The recent Australian Marine Industries Federation’s Australian Marine Awards, incorporating the Boats of the Year honours, only recognise engines when something markedly innovative is presented for judging.

Nevertheless, Yamaha Motor Australia is very well satisfied with the award result, with two boats judged winners being powered by dual Yamaha F350 V8 outboard engines.

The two vessels involved, the Naiad DV8 and the Grady White Express 305 were named, respectively, winners in the Cruising Trailerable Over 6.0-metres and Imported Non-trailerable Fishing categories.

Western Australian manufacturer, Kirby Marine, certainly deserved the accolade for the Naiad DV8, the only rigid inflatable in the awards line-up.

Judges believed it proved that safety, quality of finish and high-speed performance remained high priorities on the Australian marine market.

The Grady White breed has held a long-established reputation in the United States for design, build quality and presentation.

According to the AMIF, the Grady White impressed the judges on all fronts, and harnessed every cubic inch of the dual Yamaha engine installation.

“We are naturally very pleased at how quickly the Australian market has embraced our newV8 F350 outboard, “Brett Hampson, Yamaha national sales and marketing manager, marine, said.

“Playing a key role in two Boats of the Year awards is certainly worthy of praise, but the significance for Yamaha lies in our on-going success and is testament to the technology behind this world first engine.

“Our F350 is unmatched for power-to-weight performance across all outboard and stern drive platforms and can still lay claim to being the world’s cleanest outboard.

“It comes as no surprise that these two particular manufacturers found success with the Yamaha F350 V8,” he added.

Multiple F350 V8 configurations are rapidly becoming a popular method of powering large planing hulls that require the torque of a stern drive, with the simplicity of an outboard.

Installing a V8 outboard at the transom not only saves weight, but also allows considerable space on deck with cockpit space free of a stern drive engine box.

Yamaha has also made multi0ple engine control simpler with its Digital Network System.

Multiple engine synchronization can be achieved with the Auto-Synch Throttle Control making twin, triple and even quad engine control smoother and easier then ever.

“Yamaha is indeed proud to have played a part in powering the Naiad DV8 and the Grady White Express 305 to success in the AMIF awards,” Hampson added.