Tag Archives: recreational boating

04.18.09
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Ethanol ‘disaster’ risk for boats

Posted by Ian:
Have posted info on this in the past, but growing evidence that ethanol use in marine engines, generators and off-road vehicles poses hazards. And now more documentation, this time from Sydney, Australia …

Ethanol blend fuel poses a risk for boat owners and is “potentially disastrous” for any vessels that use petrol fuel tanks more than a few years old, industry experts say.

Government and industry adviser Gary Fooks said the blended fuel might be all right for 60 per cent of cars but was a “no-no” for 99 per cent of boats.
Full story

03.30.09
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Boaters, ethanol backers at odds over damage by fuel

Posted by Ian:
Recreational boating, ATVs and snowmobiling are popular seasonal activities in Elgin county. What then would be the impact of using ethanol-based fuels in these marine and off-road vehicles?
Trouble, according to boat manufacturers in the U.S. as reported in this story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Washington — At St. Charles Boat & Motor, owner and service manager Jerry Sims used to oversee the rebuilding of 30 carburetors in a year’s time. Last year, Sims says, he stopped counting at 750. They were victims, he claims, of ethanol in gas.

“It’s killing motors right and left,” Sims said. “But the EPA keeps shoving it down everybody’s throats.”

Armed with damage stories and test results suggesting more problems on the horizon, the boating industry is fighting to block a drive by fuel manufacturers to increase ethanol in the fuel supply from 10 percent to 15 percent — or E15.
Full story