Letters

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Alkylate petrol in outboards

Regarding the warning against the E10 petrol for 4-strokes outboards (PBO, June 2022 issue). As I understand it, the fuel leaves some sort of ‘dirt’ in the carburettor when left for a while, after most of the fuel has evaporated. Ordinary petrol has never been free from this problem, but with rising ethanol content, it appears to have become worse.

I have a 2-ton sailboat with a 6hp, 4-stroke Tohatsu on her stern. Since 2018 I have only been running that engine on the very clean, but not cheap Alkylate petrol. This almost odourless fuel makes the engine run very cleanly, and the spark plug stays clean even though the engine hardly gets time to warm up in my use. My sailboat is almost solely used for day sailing. The outboard’s job is mainly to push us out of the harbour, and sometimes back in again, so annual petrol consumption is only two to four litres a year. Therefore, the stiffer price on this fuel doesn’t add much to my boating budget.

Even better, this fuel is known to have a very long storage