16 Nov 2009

When it comes to the development of Yamaha’s F350 V8 in commercial application no other boat manufacturer has been more influential than Brisbane based boat builder Woody Marine. Woody Marine were the first builder in the world to develop a quad rigged F350 set up and have now produced five of these amazing boats in total.

In an impromptu presentation at Woody Marine’s headquarters in Brisbane Brett Hampson, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Yamaha Outboards, presented David and Deidre Green, owners of Woody Marine, with a large framed image of two of Woody’s proud V8 powered fleet and thanked them for their work.

“When the first V8 F350s arrived it was very exciting for everyone at Yamaha. No manufacturer had ever produced a four stroke outboard motor of this size and power before”, said Brett Hampson. “However we were not fully aware of the potential of this engine and the possibilities of multiple engine rigs.”

Enter Woody Marine who had been producing Rigid Hull Inflatables for almost twenty years. Woody Marine were experiencing a growing market for their custom made “Ocean Rafting” boats, high horsepower craft usually powered by three to four outboards, designed to take tourists on exciting high speed sight seeing voyages. For Woody Marine the step up to the state of the art F350s on their boats was a natural progression.

“When David first suggested the possibility of setting up four V8s on the back of one of these boats it really blew us away. It had never been tried before,” said Hampson.

Of course the possibility if producing a 1400 horsepower outboard set up was exciting but also presented a number of challenges. To accept the four Yamaha F350 outboard engines the structure of the hull in general and the transom in particular had to be bolstered. Woody Marine’s in-house Naval Architect fine tuned the hull shape to get the best from the Yamaha F350 and considerable unseen structural improvements went into the transom and hull design.

Woody’s custom V8 powered quad rigs are 14m long and tip the scales at a massive 9.5 tonnes. As a tourist boat they have fixed seating for forty passengers plus two crew.

“For these particular boats I believe we could not have achieved a better combination,” said David Green. “The engines are superb, unbelievably quiet throughout the rev range – even at full throttle.”

Since their arrival in Australia the big F350 V8 has been a great success for Yamaha, powering big offshore boats, commercial rigs and even replacing stern drive units in much loved old favourites. With great reliability and huge torque the F350 really has redefined offshore power.

Yamaha outboards are available through an Australia-wide network of authorised Yamaha outboard dealers. All Yamaha 4-stroke outboards are supported with a full 4-year manufacturer’s warranty and all 2-stroke outboards are backed by a 3-year warranty – conditions apply.

All Yamaha outboards are available with the unique “Protection Plus” package that allows customers to access extended service protection, Yamaha Marine Insurance as well as DatadotDNA theft protection for more confident and worry free boating.