June 28, 2022

Last week the team from Canadian Yachting Media and Boating Industry Canada joined the Yamaha folks for a day of new product review and boating on Peninsula Lake in Huntsville, Ontario and as you read this, I will be attending an important new boat launch event for Wellcraft in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It’s exciting to finally be able to travel and meet face-to-face again, especially to see the great new products that have been developed since COVID closed everything down. The Wellcraft press event is especially interesting. 

A select group of marine journalists will be invited out on the new Wellcraft 355 which is a design that breaks the mold for North American boats with a style that is at once a dramatic-looking adventure boat as well as one that will accommodate cruising. And, I expect to experience high-performance as well with triple outboard engines to a total of 1050 hp.

The event is at a private residence on the water in Fort Lauderdale and I’ll have the developers, brand managers and designers available to answer my questions – should be a great day!

The designers at all the manufacturers have been hard at work through COVID and I can’t wait to see all the new designs coming out this year. Even the new Yamaha F25 outboard was exciting. This is a great-running little portable that has battery-less fuel injection and power tilt and trim – on a 25!

Last Friday, I spent 90 minutes on a Zoom presentation about a whole new data collection system that spans product life from the manufacturer through the dealer and on to the end-user, giving better data at every step of the product’s life – that could be revolutionary for the industry and the owners too. These are exciting times!

Andy Adams – Editor