Dethanol for Cruisers

Nasty stuff drained from our carburetor.

Aka - Sad Tale of a Water-Clogged Carburetor.

My husband once ended a relationship in part because his girlfriend didn’t recycle.  There was a limit to too laissez faire.

Yet I drove him a bit batty when I went perhaps a bit overboard spending time finding homes for my “stuff” other than the dumpster when we radically downsized from a 1500 square foot apartment with a 1.5 car garage to a boat with maybe 250 square feet of living space.  For us, despite the challenges, there is a strong philosophical appeal to our minimalist environmental footprint, living aboard.  Bottom line:  We are avowed environmentalists in many reduce-reuse-recycle ways.

Wayne mounts our dinghy outboard motor
in Boot Key Harbor Marina workshop.

What does that have to do with “dethanol for cruisers”?

Ethanol is purportedly good for the environment because it’s locally produced fuel, its corn or soy origins supporting the domestic farming community than extracting from a limited petroleum supply.  We won’t enter the debate here whether or not ethanol is better for the environment….

Ethanol is what’s most readily available for gasoline.  It’s generally what we pick up at the local gas station pump. It’s also typically a $1+ cheaper than the gas from a marina, and we’re cheap.

Ron Claus and Wayne determine what to do next.

We’re learning, however, the hard way, that buying ethanol for our outboard is seriously penny-wise but pound-foolish.  Ultimately, ethanol’s tendency towards absorbing water from the atmosphere is worthless in our dinghy outboard.  Eventually, our motor just won’t run. 

Once again our friend Ron from Ursa Minor came to our rescue. He brought a Baja filter, which allowed Wayne to determine the $7 worth of gas we had in our portable jug was better recycled rather than reused by our motor.  Ron then graciously towed us to Boot Key Marina’s handy workshop where he and Wayne mounted our outboard engine, pulled out out the carburetor and filter and drained all the water and unclogged it.  Left it its own devices, the carburetor replacement would’ve ultimately become a $250+ repair.

Baja filter for separating
gas from other stuff.

Other side of Baja filter -- a now
indispensable tool for our dinghy outboard.

The local Home Depot unwittingly offered a free preventative fix for future gas tank water penetration….  The transport cap for plumbing pipes fit our gas can nozzle spout perfectly.

Thank you Home Depot for this complimentary red gas nozzle cap
to prevent water from getting into our gas can in the future.

In the future, our outboard motor will stick to an ethanol-free diet, to heck with the extra cost.  When we have no choice, that’s when our new Baja filter will save the day, weaning out the life-sucking water from our outboard gas prior to its ingestion.

Meanwhile, our sad tale of a water-clogged carburetor has a happy ending.  Whew!  Thanks, Ron. Vrooom, vroom and away we go!