Yamaha’s U.S. Marine Business Unit announced a new Boat Power Systems team focused on innovation in the North American boat and propulsion market. The team has been working out of Yamaha’s Kennesaw, Ga., U.S. headquarters for about a year, said Martin Peters, senior marine communications manager for Yamaha.

“The application of technology to transportation — in our case recreational transportation — is a fascinating new era that we’re exploring, and that the Boat Power Systems team is exploring,” Peters told Trade Only Today. “We want to make sure people understand that they’re here and that they have some great talent and skills.

“But we can’t tell people what they’re working on,” Peters said. “These gentlemen are behind closed doors that are locked, and there are very few people who have a pass to get in. Whatever they develop, I’ll hear about when I am allowed to hear about it.”

There is no a timeline for when some of the innovations will hit the market, but Peters said the team is looking carefully at technologies as applied to boat power systems and boating.

“We wanted to make sure this team that develops these ideas and technologies are close to the North American market, because that’s where consumers will demand these things,” said Peters. 

In the past, all engineering has been done in Japan, said Boat Power Systems engineering manager Van Sherman in a video produced by Yamaha.

“The advanced engineering group here in the U.S. is going to be a lot closer to the main market segments,” Sherman said.

Watch the video here:

The team members have credentials in such fields as robotics, artificial intelligence and aerospace, Peters said.

These videos highlight team members and their backgrounds:

• senior controller engineer Juan-Pablo Afman
• control engineer Federico Bonalumi
• mechatronics engineer Andrew Artusa

“I think we can assume that we’re looking at technologies to apply to boats and power systems of the future,” Peters said. “What they’ll be, who knows? But we are looking very carefully at technologies as they apply to boat power systems and boating.”