Primary source · Yamaha · 2003–2009
Yamaha on its own machines, 2003 to 2009
Yamaha published a dealer magazine for decades, and the personal watercraft sections of it are a primary record of how the four-stroke changeover actually happened. This is what those issues say, and what they cannot tell us.
Not yet reviewed. Every figure below was read from the source named against its section, and nobody has checked this article back against those sources a second time.
Yamaha dates its own start twice, and both dates are useful
By the company's account, research and development on what became its first Water Vehicle began in 1983, and manufacturing of personal watercraft, which Yamaha calls Marine Jets in its home market, began in 1986. Those are two different milestones three years apart, and Yamaha cites them in different issues for different purposes. The 1986 date is the one it reaches for when describing itself as an established manufacturer. Yamaha also credits itself with a sitting tandem machine that opened up what it calls the fun riding category, without giving a year for it in either issue.
The four-stroke first, told two ways
One 2005 issue states that in 2001 Yamaha developed the world's first production personal watercraft powered by a four-stroke engine. Another 2005 issue, published later the same year, states that it introduced that machine in 2002. A 2004 issue settles what the difference is: the FX140 went on sale worldwide in the spring of 2002. Developed in 2001, introduced in 2002. It is worth noticing, because a claim to a first is the kind of thing that gets repeated later with only one of its dates still attached, and the two are not interchangeable.
From: Yamaha News 2005 No.2, Yamaha News 2005 No.5, Yamaha News 2004 No.1
The changeover took about three years
Yamaha reported the FX140 selling some fifteen thousand units in its first two years, with North America and Australia named as the strongest markets. For 2004 it added two more, called FX High Output and FX High Output Cruiser in North America, which Yamaha describes as raising output to 160 hp. By early 2005 the company put its personal watercraft lineup at eight models, six of them four-stroke. Two years after the first four-stroke reached customers, most of the range had followed it.
What stood on the show stands, including one surviving two-stroke
Boat show reports give a usable snapshot of the range each year. At Tokyo in 2003 Yamaha showed five machines, including the MJ-FX140, a cruiser version of it, and the MJ-GP1300R. At Tokyo in 2005 it showed five again, by then the MJ-FX160 Cruiser, the MJ-VX110DX and MJ-VX110SP, a rescue exhibition machine, and the MJ-GP1300R once more. At Yokohama in 2008 it showed seven. The GP1300R is the one to notice: a fuel-injected two-stroke that Yamaha kept promoting alongside the four-strokes, describing its emissions as comparable to a four-stroke.
From: Yamaha News 2003 No.2, Yamaha News 2005 No.2, Yamaha News 2008 No.2
Market share, and why a share figure without a country is noise
Two issues give personal watercraft market share, and they are about different countries. In 2003 Yamaha Motor Germany reported a 46 percent WaveRunner share in Germany, alongside more than 30 percent of the outboard market there. In 2006 Yamaha Motor Argentina reported its WaveRunner share in Argentina growing from 54 percent in 2001 to 68 percent. Neither is a global figure and neither implies the other. This matters because these are exactly the numbers that get repeated later with the country quietly dropped off them.
Rescue services did a lot of the proving
Through the mid 2000s the recurring personal watercraft story in these issues is not racing, it is rescue. Surf Life Saving North Region in New Zealand evaluated an XL700 three-seater at Bethels Beach near Auckland. Yamaha Motor Australia became a preferred supplier to Surf Life Saving Australia and supplied its clubs. In Japan, WaveRunners were chosen as official rescue craft for the National High School Rowing Championships in Shizuoka, after the association reviewed its preparedness following an accident at the 2001 championships. Yamaha attributes the choice to the lack of an exposed propeller and to being able to manoeuvre alongside a person in the water.
From: Yamaha News 2003 No.4, Yamaha News 2003 No.2, Yamaha News 2005 No.4, Yamaha News 2005 No.1, Yamaha News 2005 No.6
The racing that got reported happened outside the United States
Yamaha's own race coverage in these years is almost entirely distributor activity in smaller markets. Spain ran a first Yamaha-Jet World SuperJet Cup and a first two-seater Spit Cup in 2004, both organised by the Spanish distributor. Peru entered a GP1300R at Lake Titicaca, 3,827 metres above sea level, ridden by Nicolas Rius, whom Yamaha describes as a six-time IJSBA world champion. Turkey used XL700s for a first slalom competition. For anyone tracing where stand-up racing was actually being organised, a distributor-run SuperJet cup is a more concrete trace than a results table that no longer exists anywhere online.
From: Yamaha News 2005 No.2, Yamaha News 2005 No.3, Yamaha News 2005 No.5
Caveat
This is Yamaha writing about Yamaha, in a magazine produced for its own distributors. Treat the market share figures and the claimed firsts as the company's own claims, which is exactly what they are. Where two issues give different dates for the same event, both are shown rather than one picked.
Every issue cited here
Full index of the magazine at Yamaha News PWC index, where the scope of what has actually been read is stated: most issues have had their index read and not their body text. Yamaha permits personal use only and prohibits redistribution, so nothing here is rehosted or excerpted. Every citation links to Yamaha's own PDF.
Yamaha · 2003–2009 · 12 issues cited