Sargassum in Florida

[clayhubler]

I'm in the Keys right now and there is a lot of sargassum floating everywhere. Just curious if that is normal or if it is worse than normal now. I find that it is getting stuck on the leading edge of my lower units and causing the props to cavitate (or ventilate) badly. I really can only run for a few minutes without having to stop and clear it off. Super frustrating.

Any advice??

I don't see other boats really having this problem. Perhaps the deep vee boats have the props and lower units deeper, below the sargassum floating on the surface?

 

[Gulfcoast John]

Clay,

We go to the Keys in the winter, and to Canada or New York canals in summer...but hey! There are 31 flavors of cruising!

In the winter, the locals refer to it as floating ‘sea grass’...I don’t know and don’t care whether it’s proper sargassum or not. Whatever you call it, if your cooling water intake is at the right depth that the ‘grass’ wraps around and blocks your engine lower leg cooling water intakes, you will get an overheat alarm.

If you are happy running at displacement speeds, it would be safe to raise the outboard leg to say 60 degrees rather than 90, and more grass would slide down and off, at the expense of some MPG.

Don't run at cruise speeds with the prop trimmed up that high.

There is no good solution at cruising speeds. However, if you are not getting an overheat alarm, and the grass is just collecting around your lower leg, you will simply will be getting less MPH...like having a dirty bottom, but hey no harm no foul. Pick your poison.

Just stop and go in Reverse a bit, or stop and raise the lower leg, or just stop and the grass USUALLY will drop off on it’s own. I like the digital TEMP readouts on my hacked engine data display...it gives me lots of warning to expect a piezo alarm in advance when engine temps head north of 140 degrees each.

Smaller outboard intake cooling grates are running at the grasses typical depths, so the intake grates will get blocked way more quickly than deep cooling intakes on big boats.

Don’t worry about it, you are doing everything right. It’s everywhere, and there is no avoiding it. Have fun, and next summer consider cruising the western Erie canal or Triangle Loop!

Cheers!

John

 

[ssobol]

... consider cruising the western Erie canal ...

The Erie Canal and the Finger Lakes have a big problem with invasive species. Except unlike in some other places, it is invasive plants not aquatic animals. There can be inspections of boats and trailers for plant debris.

The problem in the Finger Lakes tends to be at the north ends where they tend to be shallower. There are designated areas on Cayuga Lake where they are testing control methods.

One time locking through the double lock on the CS canal we shared the chambers with a tug boat that was using its prop wash to move a large mass of plant material through the locks to clear them. Yes, we had to stop a few times to clear the engine of accumulated plants.

 

[clayhubler]

Thank you John and ssobol