85hp Yamaha Siezed

Today while running on a plain, my motor seized (slow down). It was running fine, I did ran into some heavy waves created by other boaters. The motor did not turn off, it just slow down. I put it in neutral for a bit then tried it took off fine then it slow down again, as if power faileure. I made it to the dock and a friend told me it could be the spark plugs? Any ideas what could have caused this? and what I should do to avoid it in the future?

Thanks!

[boats.net]

Usually a fuel problem, fuel restriction or dirty carbs but could be an ignition problem.

exactly same thing with my 85hp yammie. Mine turned out to be a piece of what looked like leaf no more than a few mm dia. over part of the fuel filter gauze. To look at it you would say that it was too small to cause this prob, but once cleaned out,it was fine.

Also i have recently discovered that the water intake on this engine sucks mud from a muddy bed far easier than my previous engines. Keep an eye on telltale if you hit muddy bottom as mine clogged up and gave a spluttering teltale.