Wolverine Chapter Meet in South Haven, Michigan on
Saturday August 22, 2015

Results of the 8-22-2015 Michigan Maritime Museum Swap Meet - by Mark Suter

Weather & Attendance

We had an absolutely beautiful day for our meet and had a total of 38 registered attendees.

Flea Market

As usual, we nearly filled the parking lot with vehicles and trailers loaded with goodies to sell. There also were a few "townies" that brought in items to sell. Thus, there was the usual brisk activity in our flea market and many people were seen carrying off new-found "treasures" (including the writer).

How Slow Can You Go? Contest

Please refer to the Meet_Results section to review the winners of this fine contest.

Peoples' Choice Show Motor Competition

Please refer to the Meet_Results section to review the winners of this fine contest.

Auction
This annual event keeps generating great proceeds for the Museum and this year's auction was no exception. A big thank you goes out to Frank James, our auctioneer, and Corey Shumaker, his assistant. As usual, the auction ran very smoothly. There were items donated by both the public and our Chapter members. I would like to express my sincerest appreciation for the generosity of our donating members and to those members that made purchases in the auction. When the dust settled the proceeds for the event (that all went to the Museum) were $1025. In view of the strong support of the annual auction in the past and again this year, the Museum made a special donation to our Chapter in the amount of $200... the WC sincerely appreciated that.

Special Presentation

Corey Shumaker gave an excellent presentation on ethanol fuel (gasoline with ethyl alcohol added) and on a process for removal of alcohol and water from such fuel.

• By law, ethanol fuel currently can contain up to 15% alcohol as well as any water that has been absorbed by the alcohol. The current production of ethanol this year is projected to be 15 billion gallons but the government mandate for 2022 remains at 36 billion gallons.
• Unfortunately, alcohol has some nasty deleterious effects on fuel system components and has prompted engine manufacturers to state that use of fuels with more than 10% alcohol will invalidate warranties.
• Mercury Marine just recently approved the use of up to 10% ethanol in fuel.
• Only a hand full of new car manufactures have certified their newest vehicles to use up to 15%.
• Tests of fuels for alcohol content at random gas stations have also shown occasional violations of the current 15% limit, some as high as 40%. This has prompted many people to seek out fuel stations that sell alcohol-free fuel. Unfortunately, such stations are few and far between.
• A good process for removing the alcohol and water from Ethanol fuel before use is another viable alternative to help prevent fuel system damage.
  
• Ethyl alcohol has a natural affinity for water and will absorb it up to a certain limit. Once over that limit, phase separation occurs which leaves the gasoline on the top and the water-alcohol mix on the bottom.
  
  The process that Corey uses calls for:
  • First putting water at about ten percent total volume into a large flask. He uses an ordinary empty plastic milk jug.
  • Add your questionable fuel leaving another ten percent volume at the top as an air gap. The fuel and water will clearly separate initially.
  • Cap the jug well.
  • To force the mixture beyond the limit of absorption of the alcohol, shake it up well for several minutes to promote mixing and then let the mixture sit for about five minutes.
  • Phase separation will occur in a short time.
  • If there was ethanol present, the previous level of water will increase now with the ethanol but remain clearly at the bottom of the jug.
  • Very carefully (i.e., with minimal agitation), pour off the pure gasoline for worry-free use in motors and then discard the remaining water-alcohol mix.
  • Some communities actually allow pouring the unwanted mix down the drain because the alcohol becomes very diluted with water and becomes harmless but it must be first diluted to 24% or less, so just add tons of water to it.

Having previously experienced fuel system problems (usually carburetor float bowl inlet valve sticking shut) and not having any local source for pure gasoline, I likely will try this process, myself. Thanks, Corey, for the great presentation (and for help in writing these paragraphs about the presentation)... the process definitely offers a viable way to deal with this government-created nuisance.

Special Meeting

A special meeting was held by Mark Suter and Noel Harrington during the meet with Patti Montgomery Reinert, the Museum Executive Director. The purpose was to discuss the distribution of the auction proceeds. When we started holding meets at the Museum, the Museum was in financial trouble so we agreed that 100% of the proceeds from the auction should go to the Museum. Since that time, the WC has fallen into similar financial difficulty. Because of our financial status, because there are no other sources of income from this meet, because much of the auctioned material is donated by the WC members and because our members wind up buying much of the auctioned material, many of our members have advised that the WC should be sharing the proceeds of the auction. So we made the proposal to Patti to have a 50/50 split in the proceeds. Unfortunately, there is a legal requirement that must be met with such an agreement. Anyone that donates an item to a 501C3 Charitable Organization can request a letter stating the value of said item (i.e., selling price) for tax write-off purposes. If there was a 50/50 split agreement, then the Museum would write one letter for half of the value and we would be responsible for writing a letter for the other half of the value. Legally, the writers of such letters must be a 501C3 organization (which we are NOT) so this arrangement cannot work for us. But Patti did offer an alternative... we could have our members donate some items to the Museum and others to the WC. Both would be sold and the proceeds from the first would go exclusively to the Museum and from the second exclusively to the WC. So it will be important to designate which organization will get the proceeds from each item donated and we must participate in recording that information. We agreed to try that in 2016 and see how it works and then make any appropriate changes that are deemed necessary.

We also discussed the Museum policy of charging attending "townies" the normal Museum admission fee to see our display. Unfortunately, many of the townies that show up do NOT want to pay that fee and then leave. Before they started charging that fee, our auction attendance included quite a few townies and they bid on a lot of items and helped drive the prices up. So many of our members feel that eliminating the admission charge would help the bottom line. Patti said the policy cannot be changed because they firmly believe the take on admission fees is greater than any possible increase in revenues associated with more competitive bidding.

Lunch

A lunch of bratwurst and sauerkraut, corn on the cob, baked beans, sautéed vegetables, potato chips, beverage and cookie was available from the Museum staff for a $6 donation (all proceeds went to the Museum). As usual, the food was delicious.

Finances & Wrap-Up

There were no WC expenses for the meet and with the $200 donation from the Museum, the financial outcome will go in the records as a $200 profit. The great weather, food and planned events made this meet very worthwhile for the attendees... everyone had a great time. Our thanks go out to Frank James and Corey Shumaker for co-chairing the meet and to the Museum for their continued hospitality in letting us use the grounds of their great facility. Thanks also go out to Amy Harrington and Jim Brizzolara for helping the writer tally the Peoples' Choice votes and print out the award ribbons.


You can view individual pictures taken at the meet below. Click on any picture to bring up a larger version.

Meet_Results

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