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Alarm went off

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Dev75

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NYS Finger Lakes Region - Skaneateles Lake
So as we were enjoying a nice ride up the lake this weekend the alarm went off and the boat shut down.  I thru it in neutral and turned off ignition.  I glanced back at the engine and noticed a large clump of seaweed on it.  It was bright out and I did not glance down to look at the indicator panel before removing the seaweed.  After this I started back up  -  no alarm and no problems.  I am hoping that it was a matter of seaweed clogging the cool water intake and the alarm was an overheat warning?  If it were something else I have to imagine the alarm would still have activated?  I tried researching this in the manuals but it doesn't really specify how the alarm resets.  I figured I'd throw it out here for anybody that may have experienced the same thing before I call the dealer.  
 
I had the same thing happen to me two years ago when I got near too much vegetation.  I just cleared the plant material from the water intake and everything worked great.   
 
The system worked exactly as designed. The alarm sounded and shut things down before damage.
 
I had the same issue with the alarms.  I park in a canal full of seaweed and the alarm went off.  I noticed the water in take was full of mud and grass.   I use my dock brush to clean it off.   Once i did that the alarm goes away.   I now clean it off once i get in open waters.   The system works!   
 
Thanks for the replies!  Makes me feel much better knowing it was likely the seaweed and even better knowing the alarm system worked.  
 
Same experience here also.  Our Merc 115 didn't seem to ever have an issue, but the big Yamaha seems to be clogged constantly, but only had the alarm and limp mode kick in once.  We clean the seaweed off a lot, but never had any on the Mercury inlets.  Now, it's quite possible that maybe the larger motor is drawing more water in, therefore we get more accumulating??  The system does work, but it seems like there should be a better/different design?  My dealer (Who is a Mercury dealer) says that the big Verado's have a large inlet instead of our small hole screens.  Is it because of the  "Offshore" classification of the motor, whereas they don't design for seaweed as much as the inland lakes??  Dunno, but we know that our alarm works! :)
 
Being in my first year as a new boat owner I'm doing a lot of self educating.  I find myself in weed beds quite a bit because we have some tremendous large mouth bass on our lake.  However, between this alarm and the constant running back to the throttle and steering wheel I have come to the conclusion that my only regret (so far) is removing that trolling motor from the original wish list!  
 
I've had a bassboat for 30 years.  When idling around in weedy lakes, when you get to clean water, put the engine in reverse and give it throttle for a couple of seconds.  If there are weeds around the skeg they will come off.  Then put it back in forward and you should be fine.
 
Thanks Bass, I'll try that next time!
 
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