www.iFourWinns.com

My personal experience has been that 10% ethanol in gas did not hold up for 3 weeks before I had serious problems at anything more than idle. This was in Maine 2 years ago and after using the boat for 3 weeks it would start but die when it came off idle. I ended up having to siphon out as much gas as I could and dump a bunch of Stabil in to get it running. Then when I returned home to Florida the boat sat for 4 months before I took it out to the Indian River and I spent a weekend draining the tank and cleaning the carb because it would not start.
After that I tried the ethanol free fuel available locally. It was $4.45 a gallon and cost me $160 to fill the boat but last summer I never had a problem and I just cleaned up the boat last weekend after sitting since August (6 months) and it fired right up.
So it cost me about $30 extra to fill it up but since I haven't had to add Stabil or mess with added water absorbtion I feel the cost was worth it.
This is just my personal experience so take it for what it's worth.
My recommendation is go ethanol free if you can find it. Otherwise use lots of Stabil.
My boat is a Horizon 180 with a 5 liter carb engine.

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Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing
2001 Horizon 180

I went to a winter seminar put on by my marina in CT a few years ago. They had a guest speaker that was a fuel engineer that worked in an independent lab that did fuel and additive testing for the major oil companies. He was knowledgeable concerning marine fuel and additives. He felt that the only marine fuel or additive that was actually worth the money was Valvetech. In his opinion it was lucky that Startron even burned. As far as E-10, he determined thru testing that it was compatible with marine engines but not with the fiberglass tanks as many of the older boats used to have. Anymore than E-10 would not work in a marine engine. The huge problem with ethanol is that it attracts water and causes irreversible fuel sepration. He suggested that any boat left for more than a few weeks either have the fuel tank filled or emptied. Half a tank with the venting system would gather water.

I am happy that I can buy non alcohol marine fuel here in Florida. When I was in CT, many of my dock mates had issues with winter storage if their tanks were not filled.

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07 Tiara Sovran 4300
07 338 Vista - SOLD

Well you gotta remember.. mechanical wise on the engine, there is nothing INCOMPATIBLE with E10 (or even E85). E-anything will never physically damage any engine. The incompatibility is the lack of use that most boats get, causing water to be absorbed by the alcohol in the fuel and it makes the boat run like crap. It's not a problem with bad fuel, it's a problem with bad owners.

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1981 Columbia 8.7
2015 Yamaha FZR - 87mph - sold
2006 Yamaha GP1300R - sold
2003 Chaparral 215 SSI - sold
2009 Stingray 195CS - sold
2000 Four Winns H180 - sold
1976 O'day Daysailer II - sold
Rick's Four Winns H180 Mods/Upgrade Thread

All I use is Marine Stabil, I have had to get the QJet rebuilt 2x in the 10 years I have owned this boat. I just read an article in Boat US's publication Seaworthy that the aluminum in older carbs is not as corrosion resistant and they are more susceptible to ethanol related corrosion (of aluminum). I have never seen water in the gas that I drain from the fuel filter at the end of each season, but I don't like being forced to buy e10 as we have no choice. The other issue is yes e10 is ok, but what you get is sometimes more than e10.....

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II