Trade-A-Boat – April 2018

WHAT DOES VALENTINO ROSSI HAVE IN COMMON WITH AN

OUTBOARD? NOT MUCH REALLY...

Happy Ha ha

V

alentino

Rossi likes his

Yamaha and

the similarities

between his

engine and those mounted

on the back of the big

Haines Hunter 700 are more

than a shared tuning fork

logo. First up, they are both

four-strokes with inline

configuration, and while the

bike pumps out 50hp more,

it does it at 16,000 revs and

from a capacity of only

1000cc compared to the

outboard’s 2785cc. But the

main similarity is that Rossi

goes gangbusters in the wet,

and so does the Haines.

We didn’t quite reach

the straight line 320kmh

(172kts) of the bike but

44kts in a two-and-a-half-

tonne fishing boat isn’t

hanging around. There

was the advantage of twin

engines of course.

THE TECH

Some racing experience

must rub off on the

production engines and

the F200 scores 16-valves

driven by double overhead

camshafts. Four tuned

“long intake tubes” ram

air through electronic

multipoint fuel injection to

give the optimised low-

and mid-range torque

needed to compete with

modern two-strokes. At

the same time, Yamaha’s

Variable Camshaft Timing

adjusts the advance through

computer control for even

more torque and it showed

in holeshots and immediate

acceleration through the

range.

PERFORMANCE

Trolling speeds around

6kts saw a fuel usage of

10lt/h from both engines.

(We could have run one

for better economy, but

I forgot.) Holeshot is

impressive and we were

planing at only 12kts and

2800rpm, showing how

effectively the flattened

running section at the

118 tradeaboat.com.au

outboard

test

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BOATS

Yamaha F200

STORY & PHOTOS JOHN FORD