brian

I wonder if the air at the beach is not causing the mixture to go leaner and thus killing the plug indirectly ?

The reason that **overly** rich running is bad is that in ABC (tapered bore) motors the overly rich condition does not allow the motor to reach the correct operating temperature thus causing
accelerated wear. Even during running in the instructions will warn against this condition - for ABC motors obviously. The pinch you feel at TDC is much more pronounced at lower temps compared
to operating temps.