SEPTEMBER 2009 - Association of Marina Industries
SEPTEMBER 2009 - Association of Marina Industries SEPTEMBER 2009 - Association of Marina Industries
14 Sponsors Thank You for making National Marina Day 2009 a Success! Partners American Recreation Coalition National Youth Marine Alliance NMMA Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation US Power Squadron US Coast Guard Auxiliary
Clean Marina & Environmental News Continued from Page 12 You can make biodiesel yourself. It requires equipment, chemicals and know-how, but it really isn’t all that more complex than making soap, or brewing beer, or a many other technical hobbies. You can also buy biodiesel commercially, but you can expect to pay a premium for the “save the earth” marketing and the limited supply. While you can read a lot about biodiesel, getting your hands on some can be difficult. In fact, if you go to a biodiesel producer’s web site, you may find that many don’t actually tell you where to buy the stuff, or how much it costs, but you will read loads and loads about how great it is, and they will often have t-shirts! Realistically, if the whole world switched to biodiesel tomorrow, we’d run out in nanoseconds. So, assuming you can find biodiesel in some fuel boutique, and you’re willing to pay as much or more for it than regular petro-diesel, it will theoretically run in almost any existing marine engine. It will void your warranty, if you have one, and possibly cause some long-term problems as well. You see, biodiesel, while it’s standardized to a degree, and is being tested regularly, just isn’t quite proven yet over the long term. The problems that have surfaced with its use so far, however, are minimal. The biggest problem is that Biodiesel is a great solvent. It will take all of the old petrodiesel junk in your tank and lines, and will bring it right to your filters, so in an older We Are All Feeling the Effects of a Suffering Economy As gas prices continue to increase the profit margins at the fuel dock are less. As a country, marina fuel usage is down 40% from what it has been in year’s past. The Good News Transaction Solutions can help you INCREASE YOUR PROFIT MARGIN through Guaranteed Savings on your monthly credit card processing fees! Fax a recent month’s processing statement in today and a Transaction Solutions/AMI Representative will provide you with a detailed comparative analysis. For more details contact us at 850-934-3030 or via email at ami@tspay.com Guaranteed Savings, Guaranteed Results Visit us Online at www.TSPay.com 15 diesel fuel system, they’ll need to be changed often. Biodiesel will also soften and finally dissolve natural rubber hoses and seals. So, some say that you need to replace all lines, gaskets and seals with synthetics BEFORE you run biodiesel. On the other hand, many people who have converted to biodiesel say you should just start using it, change your filters often, and then replace the hoses/seals/gaskets WHEN you need to, since the softening process is slow, and may not ever happen. The Final Analysis Let’s say you have a sailboat with a 35hp diesel engine that you use to get into and out of your slip, or when the wind dies. You probably run the motor for less than 100 hours a year, and that means you probably burn less than 50 gallons of petrodiesel doing that. At even $4 per gallon, you’re only looking at $200 per year, and the cost of converting to another fuel is not likely to ever make sense to you. If you just want to do it to save the planet, sorry, but the environmental costs of producing and shipping the conversion equipment - even if it’s just hoses - will still probably be more than your current environmental impact. Also, all of the unburned fuel will rot at some rate - that’s what bio-degradable means. So, going bio on a sailboat probably isn’t strictly practical, but the same could be said about owning a sailboat. Now, on the other hand, let’s say you have a powerboat with twin diesels that burn more like 30 gallons an hour (or more), and you go through 1,000 gallons per year (or more). Converting to biodiesel would have a real effect on your vessel’s environmental impact, and you would likely use enough of it to keep it fresh in the tanks. If you converted to used vegetable oil, you’d also save that $4,000 a year in fuel costs (assuming you have a lot of fried food restaurants lined up). In this case, as long as the engines are past warranty anyway, converting to biofuels might be very practical for both the environment and your wallet. Of course, in a commercial application, being able to advertise that the boat is bio-powered might actually EARN money. There’s more to all this than global warming and fuel costs. Spilled bio-fuels are less toxic to marine life, there is less soot produced by bio-engines, and both the exhaust and the fuel itself are safer to you and your crew. Using bio-fuels lessens your dependence on the oil companies and overseas interests like OPEC, and if you or your crew are sensitive to the smell of diesel, you can get rid of the stink without an expensive re-powering. It will all really come down to a personal choice, but suffice it to say that the choice now exists. Bio-fuels on boats are now a viable alternative, and as fuel prices increase, they will become the budget option for more and more mariners.
- Page 1 and 2: 1 SEPTEMBER 2009 ADVOCATE In this i
- Page 3 and 4: 3 Industry News Study Tour Marinas
- Page 5 and 6: 5 Industry News Continued from Page
- Page 7 and 8: 7 Conference Corner Continued from
- Page 9 and 10: Technical Advice From Bob Adriance
- Page 11 and 12: 11 Legislation & By Wendy Larimer p
- Page 13: Clean Marina & Environmental News C
- Page 17 and 18: Around The World World First Certif
- Page 19 and 20: Training & Certification By Kayce C
- Page 21 and 22: Association of Marina Industries -
- Page 23 and 24: News From Washington By Larry Innis
- Page 26: AMI Contact Information Merritt Alv
14<br />
Sponsors<br />
Thank You<br />
for making<br />
National <strong>Marina</strong><br />
Day<br />
<strong>2009</strong><br />
a Success!<br />
Partners<br />
American Recreation Coalition<br />
National Youth Marine Alliance<br />
NMMA<br />
Recreational Boating and Fishing<br />
Foundation<br />
US Power Squadron<br />
US Coast Guard Auxiliary
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