The Crappie Masters Tournament Trail recently ended its 2017 season with the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) as co-title sponsor of the event in an effort to educate boaters, conservation enthusiasts and consumers about using ethanol in boats and other marine applications.
The 2017 tournament trail kicked off in January and ran through late September, with 18 events in multiple states, highlighting the boating community’s use of 10% ethanol.
In addition to being a co-title sponsor of the tournament, RFA sponsored one of the teams, Terry Richard and Casey Rayner of Louisiana. “Traveling tournaments, we couldn’t do it without our sponsors,” Richard said after the championship weigh-in on September 23 in Greenville, MS. “We’ve traveled about 14 tournaments this year and there’s good turnout at every tournament.”
Richard says every tournament they used 10 percent ethanol (E10) in their boat. “We have a 56 gallon tank on our boat,” he said. “We’ve put over 1200 gallons of (E-10) fuel in our boat and had zero fuel-related issues with our boat…so if ethanol’s causing that big an issue and I’m running 1200 gallons of fuel through my boat I should have already had an issue.”
RFA plans to continue its co-title sponsorship of the 2018 Crappie Masters Tournament Trail, along with Bass Pro Shops. Other sponsors of the tournament include Missouri Corn Growers and American Ethanol.
RFA Crappie Masters team Terry Richard and Casey Rayner