Yamaha has to be the strangest company on Earth. Sure, they make things like the Tenere 700 and Grizzly ATVs, as well as RMax UTVs, and once even made snowmobiles. And produced many crazy concepts like a four-wheeler, a tilting motorcycle/ATV, a self-balancing robot and many others.
But the Japanese company also makes things like guitars, keyboards, full-on grand pianos, and even a freaking piccolo – unfortunately, not a Dragon Ball character. Yamaha also made archery gear for a while, including bows and DVD players, the latter of which I’m pretty sure I had at one point. Who’s ready to get back into that business and own some real media?
Still, the iconoclastic brand’s latest effort, which is being developed in conjunction with the Finns – as you’d expect – has to be one of the strangest offshoots they’ve ever launched. Not only does it have nothing to do with powersports, woodwinds, digital media, or archery, but it doesn’t use any kind of regular propulsion. Nor is it designed for clothed humans.
Yes, umm, Yamaha is building a hydrogen-powered sauna boat. Yes, you read that correctly.
Yamaha Motors Jet Sauna Boat Concept
Photo by: Yamaha
The “proof of concept” boat will be co-developed with Finnish non-profit organization, the Central Finland Mobility Foundation (NPO SafeMoF), and is billed as “Yamaha Motor’s first initiative to explore a marine application combining hydrogen and electric power in this way, in collaboration with external organizations.”
The idea from Yamaha and NPO Safemof is to take Yamaha’s HARMO electric boat control system, combine it with a hydrogen system, and run both it and the sauna off the broken resource. Why sauna boat? Unclear. But Yamaha says its low-vibration jet propulsion system combined with the EV powertrain means the whole thing feels like nothing is propelling the sauna boat forward. It’s probably a good thing that the purpose of a sauna is to relax and the constant thud of gasoline energy can disrupt that peace and quiet.
According to the release, “For this project, Yamaha Motor will supply HARMO units and provide technical and personnel support for its installation on the boat,” but adds, “Note that this is a PoC project and future commercialization or sales are not being contemplated at this time.” So, unfortunately, it looks like you’ll never be able to buy a hydrogen-powered jet-sauna-boat. Liar.
However, the boat is said to be unveiled next week…at Rally Finland. For some reason. Again, this company is absolutely crazy, and I love the chaos it brings to the market. Stay weird, Yamaha!
