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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Discussion about ethanol/gas with BoatUS..
Posted By: IRGuy
Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2006, at 3:31 p.m.
I read all the posts here, since I own a Bert 33 diesel, and I have gotten a lot of good info from this forum. I posted the following today on the Bertram 33 forum.. and thought it might have a place here as well.
-------------------------------------------------I called the Consumer Affairs number at BoatUS main offices this lunch time and asked the individual who answered the phone about BoatUS's position on ethanol/gas and why I had not seen anything from them lately in anything but "Seaworthy", BoatUS's magazine for members they insure. He told me someone would call me back later, as it was lunch time and nobody there at that time could answer me.
About two hours later I was pleasantly surprised to get a call back from the editor of Seaworthy Magazine himself. We discussed several things.. I summarize the most important of them below... The following might be a little jumbled, but I did ask a lot of questions and our 20 minute conversation took several turns.
BoatUS is certainly aware of the issue, and the serious consequences for some boat owners.. and that three articles on ethanol/gas issues so far have appeared in Seaworthy. I mentioned I was aware of that, but since Seaworthy was only distributed to BoatUS insureds the info was not getting out into the rest of the BoatUS membership, let alone the rest of the boaters in the US. He told me the next issue of the general BoatUS magazine will have an article on the subject. He assured me that this was a rapidly developing issue of concern for them. It has blossomed in the past year, and they know many untrue rumors have been passed around as well as some correct info.
He indicated that as far as rubber hoses degrading from ethanol/gas was concerned the hose manufacturers did not have concerns, since a long time ago (mid 80's) most hose manufacturers started making ethanol tolerant hoses.
The reason ethanol is being added to gas now is that the federal government has informed the petro manufacturers that MTBE is a pollutant, and the government will no longer protect the gas mfgr's from lawsuits over MTBE leaking into the environment. The gas companies themselves decided to add ethanol.. it was not mandated by the gov't. The only other octane enhancer available is lead, which if used would add about another $1.00 per gallon to the cost of gas. He said aviation gas still uses lead. (I assume this means that avgas won't have ethanol added to it.)
He admits that the older fiberglas tanks in Berts, Hatteras's and other boats are vulnerable due to the problems we have discussed here, and he implied that even newer fiberglas tanks might be a concern.. apparently the industry is still looking at which formulations are of concern, and there is no published formal hard and fast position on fiberglas tanks yet. He also said ABYC only recommends stainless be used for small gas tanks. (I believe he said 75 gallons or less, but I am not sure.)
He said that polyethylene is also subject to ethanol damage, in that present formulations become brittle when exposed to ethanol, and so far the poly tank mfgr's have not been able to come up with a new formulation that passes ABYC flame resistance standards.
He warned me that anyone who has MTBE gas in their tanks now should use it up as much as possible before changing over to ethanol/gas, since the mixing of MTBE and ethanol causes additional problems. He also confirmed that ethanol/gas, being a much more efficient solvent that MTBE gas, will dissolve the gunk and stuff formed on the inside surfaces of existing fuel tanks and lines, and that everyone should be prepared to change filters more often until the contaminates have been removed.
Finally.. I asked about the likelyhood of ethanol being added to diesel fuel anytime soon.. he said that he doubted that would happen, for the following reasons..
Ethanol production capabilities are not now able to produce all that will be needed to take care of the automobile market, and adding it to diesel fuel was unlikely.. and.. that he believed that soy was a much better additive for diesel fuel, so if any changes were to be made to diesel fuel it would most likely be the addition of soy.
Co-incidently, he told me that the BoatUS staff was having a meeting later this afternoon on this very issue. He assured me several times that BoatUS realized the impact this issue will have on the boating commiunity, and from that I assume they will be taking a more active position in the future than they have to date.
So.. I feel now that in spite of their not having yet initiated a widespread warning campaign to the general public, BoatUS has at least plans to start publishing info on this problem in their general distribution magazine. It will be interesting to see what they say.
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