Emergency Stop?

Yesterday I was preparing to leave the slip (moving to a different slip) and was helping with a dock line and the Yanmar just stopped. There was no one in the cabin or on the flybridge. When I checked the Yanmar display it was showing “Emergency Stop”.

I turned the key off and let it sit for 15 minutes and attempted a restart. When I turn the key to the first stop the charging light did not come on. As I turn the key to the start position the Yanmar started and ran until I was positioned in the new slip. When I turn the key off the display showed “Emergency Stop”.

Now the engine will not start now.

I have an engine guy looking at it, but thought someone on the forum may be able to help.

Any thoughts?

Halon fire suppression fault?

Do you have anything other than the normal, possibly green, light on the fire suppression system? Got pressure in the bottle in the engine room?

After first stop the light was green. I checked the engine room and no sign of a problem. i did not check the bottle, but it was certified last fall.

Now when I turn the key there no lights on the suppression display, all fuel gauges and rudder indicators are not functioning.

I have not pressed the reset button on the suppression system. I’ll do some research on when it should be reset.

Yes, press the reset button as long as you are sure there is no fire down there. You may have a popped circuit breaker shutting your engine circuits down. I have such a breaker on my power panel.

I had a situation wherein the engine would not start. It turned out to be the switch. Maybe your switch is faulty.

Sounds like a fire shutdown failure, if you have that system (you probably do).


If you have a SeaFire gray box, they are in my opinion a defective design and highly prone to failure. I personally know of a dozen or more that have failed including my own, completely disabling the boat. There are 4, 6, and 8 relay versions of the gray box, and the more relays, the more prone to failure. The black box, by the way, is a different design and is fine.

Emergency Stop fixed?

I just spoke with the service department and they have the Yanmar starting again.

They are sending me more detail about what they found, but resetting the Seafire suppression system and correcting a toggle position (?) has provided a solution.

I will be investigating the problem further and try to identify possible causes.

Once I get more information I'll post an update.

I really appreciate all of the information you provided.

Adding to what TwistedTree offered, we also had an older SeaFire system. They were very willing to provide a replacement control unit, as well as communicate with the vessel designer/builder regarding its retrofit. They spent a bunch of time on the phone with me as I completed the retrofit myself. Excellent product knowledge and customer service. We are the third owners of the system, making their support extremely attractive from a warranty standpoint. Maybe some discussion with them would be productive...

Good Luck

IRENE said:

Adding to what TwistedTree offered, we also had an older SeaFire system. They were very willing to provide a replacement control unit, as well as communicate with the vessel designer/builder regarding its retrofit. They spent a bunch of time on the phone with me as I completed the retrofit myself. Excellent product knowledge and customer service. We are the third owners of the system, making their support extremely attractive from a warranty standpoint. Maybe some discussion with them would be productive...

Good Luck

Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I have a different perspective on this. I will never have another SeaFire product on my boat after my experience with this.


SeaFire admitted to me on the phone that there was a design problem, but from what I can tell, they have done nothing to fix it. They have also made no effort to recall the product, or in any way alert people to the problem. They made no offer to replace my defective unit, and I had to buy a new one even though it was only about 3 years old.


Nordhavn, on the other hand, stepped up to help their customers and offered a alternate way of using the device that reduces the likelihood of the problem. They also offered a design for a manual bypass - something that the SeaFire is supposed to include itself, but that too fails when the device fails. But the alternate use of the device also defeats the inherent self-test that is part of the recommended installation approach.


To me, they completely ignored and avoided the problem, and it's one that can completely disable a boat without any notice. It completely disabled my boat, but fortunately I was at the dock at the time, and not passing through the narrow, rock-lined entrance leading to the dock. I will never do business with them again.

I have a SeaFire installation, but stopped short of having the automatic shutdown option installed. If my engine"room" temp gets too high, a loud siren will sound and I know that means I should shut down the engine immediately. BUT, I get to decide whether to shut down immediately or perhaps 60 seconds later. The latter would probably mean failure to extinguish the fire, but might mean I avoid getting run down by freighter or some other potentially worse disaster. I want to be in control of when to shut down the engine -- at least to the extent possible.

No problems with mine other than to replace the physically broken small indicator unit when I bought the boat five years back. Still can't figure out how the PO managed to do that.

Twisted Tree

Following your post, I recall we did pay for the replacement box.

Additionally, I think Nordhavn was the one letting the issues with the SeaFire system be known. We definitely did not receive any “push” From SeaFire, though they had no idea we owned one of their systems.

Thanks -