HARMO: THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEM BY YAMAHA?

Little is known about it. Presented in absolute preview yesterday at Mets, Yamaha Harmo arrived in Amsterdam just few hours before the opening of the event: for the moment, there are no official data but just the first prototypes exhibited before a curious audience.

According to the engineers of the group, Harmo is an innovative electric propulsion system designed for motorboats. It can envisage a single or double installation and it is made up of two pods rotating 90 degrees around their own axis and which can be controlled by a joystick. Like the already established competitors on the market, they allow the boat to shift laterally since propellers rotate in both the two directions.

The model exhibited in Amsterdam has the same push as a traditional 10 Hp inboard-outboard. The propellers’ blades rotate inside the circular supporting structure thanks to an electromagnetic bond while a thin layer of water between the two parts acts as a conductor. The prototype arrives after over a year of planning and trials and the first samples have been tested on some cruiser boats along Dutch channels. Harmo is specifically designed for professional applications and inner waters and it doesn’t like high speed.

When will it reach the market? How much will it cost? It’s impossible to say it. Yamaha’s technicians still define it a concept whose aim at Mets was to collect the first impressions among nautical operators, journalists and general market. And you, what do you think?