October, 2012 | Outboard Motor Oil

The History of Yamaha

Yamaha is a bit of a bizarre corporation. They’re a multi-billion dollar company that is based in Japan and was established in 1887, exclusively creating pianos and reed organs. As the years went on, the company’s product lines expanded more and more and now Yamaha’s brand name is recognized as one of the best-known Japanese companies in the world.

Not only is Yamaha currently the largest manufacturer of musical instruments of all varieties at this point in time, but they also produce a large plethora of other products including motorcycle and boat products. I exclusively play on Yamaha musical keyboards, and oddly enough, I also only use Yamaha 2M oil for my boat. It’s very interesting to me to think that the same corporation makes my keyboards also makes the supplies I use for my boat.

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An Irrational Fear of Cruise Ships

I have an irrational fear of cruise ships that stems from the knowledge I have about the Titanic. I’ve obviously seen the movie Titanic, as well as a number of documentaries about the ship, and for some reason, they’ve instilled this really bizarre deep-seated fear of cruise ships. I was invited out to go on a cruise with some family members not too long ago and I had to vehemently refuse because even the thought of being on a cruise ship made me woozy.

Oddly enough, it’s only cruise ships that freak me out. Other types of watercraft don’t terrify me at all. I’m actually a huge fan of boating. Just the other day, I went out and picked up some Mercury Premium Plus oil for my own boat. However, you’ll never see me on a giant cruise ship-sized watercraft; I think part of what really terrifies me is the sheer size of the boat itself. I wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

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Watching a Dumb Movie

My friends and I have a tradition where we watch the movie Waterworld starring Kevin Costner every Thanksgiving. I don’t know how we wound up choosing to do this on Thanksgiving, because there’s no actual relation between the holiday and the movie, but that’s just what we do. The movie is considered one of the biggest box office flops of all time, in that an enormous amount of money was spent in its creation and very little was made back, and overall, it’s a pretty god-awful movie.

Basically, it’s a film set in a future where the polar ice caps have melted and everyone travels around on water. Everybody travels around on boats and people are looking for dry land. I’ll save you the time, they find some dry land, and it’s the peak of Mount Everest. It’s pretty dumb. All the riding around on boats, however, inspired me to pick up some Evinrude XD50 oil and go out on my own boat the next day.

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Brand Loyalty

Ever since I bought a boat, I decided I would learn how to do all of my own boat maintenance. I’ve always done my own maintenance on any car I’ve ever owned, so I figured it’d be worthwhile learning about how to keep my boat maintained as well, considering that’s the type of thing I’m interested in.

Some people, myself included, develop a kind of brand loyalty towards certain types of items used for boat maintenance. On my boat, for instance, I only use Mercury 2 stroke premium outboard motor oil. I did a lot of research to figure out what would be best for the type of boat that I have and that’s what I landed on.

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From Canada to California

When I lived in Canada, I was always a big fan of going out on my snowmobile. Then, a few years ago, I moved out to California for work. There were a lot of things that I had to adjust to in moving countries, but even more than the differences between the United States and Canada were simpler things such as suddenly dealing with warm weather all of the time, which I was far from used to.

When winter came around, I would drive around on my snowmobile and pick up snowmobile oil. These days, I instead use a Waverunner and pick up Waverunner oil, and I can even do that in the winter! I enjoy living in California a lot and sometimes it’s strange how many parallels there really are – like the snowmobile and Waverunner parallel – but sometimes I do miss things back home.

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Preparing for the First Snow

I always get excited when winter comes around and it starts to snow, because it means that it’s finally that time again where I can take my snowmobile out and about. Considering there’s so much time between winters, I always want to make sure that my snowmobile is in tip-top condition when the first snowfall occurs each year.

Typically in the autumn, so that I don’t have to think about it once it actually snows, I start stocking up on the supplies I need for my snowmobile. I get everything I need to clean and maintain it such as snowmobile oil and everything like that. By the time winter rolls around, I’m already completely prepared to take my snowmobile out in the snow!

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Fuel Additives

Since I’ve purchased a boat, I’ve started to become a bit more familiar with the different types of maintenance accessories that I need in order to take care of my boat. For instance, I always take a look at the different types of motor oil and figure out what’s best for my boat.

I often use Yamalube motor oil, but I’ve also started checking out certain fuel additives. One of the fuel additives I use most regularly is Ringfree Plus, which is also created by Yamaha, the creators of Yamalube motor oil. Ringfree Plus is good for cleaning carburetors, fuel injectors, intake ports, combustion chambers, and intake valves.

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Making a Boating Gift Basket

My daughter recently bought a boat; I’d been taking her out on my own boat since she was a little girl so I was proud to see her following in her father’s footsteps. I decided that, for Christmas, I would purchase some boat accessories and things like that for her that she would probably need for her new boat.

For instance, I picked up a few bottles of outboard oil to add to a big boating gift basket that I was going to give to her. The gift basket I put together also included some supplies that could be used for cleaning her boat, as well as a few other useful maintenance items. I think she’ll really appreciate her gift and she’ll be able to make immediate good use out of it as well.

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A Mechanic’s Opinion

I’m a mechanic; I work a lot with cars, but my specialty is actually with working on boats, which allows me to have a niche market of working on my customers’ cars and boats, letting them bring both vehicles to the same place with the mechanics they already know and trust.

Sometimes people have asked me which brands of oil they should be purchasing for their boats. Personally, I’ve always stuck with Mercury oil for the engines of boats that I work on, but I know other people that use different brands of oil and have had similar success rates. I intend to keep using Mercury oil when I’m at work, however

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Getting Back on the Water

I live in Washington State, so we get a lot of weather that’s not really great as boating weather. It definitely rains a lot during the spring and the fall and it can get quite a bit too cold or snowy during the winter. Because of this, sometimes I’ll go through fairly long periods of time before I can go boating again; usually my last trip is in October and I can’t go out again until March or April.

There were a few things I needed to do when spring was ending to get my boat prepared. I like to give it a good cleaning before I do anything else. Then I get the supplies I need to deal with its maintenance. When I was almost done, all I needed was a fresh bottle of Mercury 2 stroke oil and I’d be ready to hit the open water.

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Different Interests

My girlfriend is different from most girls. She grew up as the youngest child with five older brothers and her interests have been heavily influenced by her dad and her brothers. She’s really interested in cars and boats, for instance. She even has her own boat, which is rare for a girl in her twenties who still lives in an apartment.

Even gift-giving with her is a little strange, certainly different than what it’s been like for my previous girlfriends. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and all she could think of was a bottle of Mercury 2 cycle oil. She uses it for her boat. It’s a very different experience just because she’s interested in such different things than anyone else I’ve dated before.

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Going to a Professional

I’ve always been wary about trusting the opinions of friends when it comes to finding the right products for things like my car or my boat. I always like to go to a professional to get the information I need. For instance, recently, I was trying to find out what kind of oil I should purchase for my boat.

I went to a boat mechanic and he was able to recommend to me the right kind of oil for my boat and he even let me know which one I’d be able to find at an affordable price. I picked up some Optimax oil and applied it to my boat so that it would run smoothly. It’s worked just fine since I did that; I haven’t had any problems.

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