Yamaha XTO Offshore 425-hp Outboard

The biggest trend in outboards in the past decade is, well, everything’s getting bigger. The rise of mega-center-consoles — boats that are 40 to 50 feet in length and powered by quad outboard installations — has both expanded the realm of outboard-powered vessels and grown the demand for engines powerful enough to push them. Enter Yamaha’s biggest and most powerful outboard engine to date, the 425 hp, 5.6L V-8 XTO Offshore.

The XTO represents a first for Yamaha in many respects. It is the first four-stroke on the market to feature direct injection, with an industry-high 12.2-to-1 compression ratio, and the first to be packaged with an electric steering system. In fact, ­Yamaha is touting it not merely as an outboard but as a “fully ­integrated power system.”