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err, forgive me you for being thick but surely an expert in all things should understand that poo emits methane regardless of whether it is wrapped up in a plastic bag and dumped in landfill or disposed of in any other manner including being transported by gallons of water to a treatment plant at great cost.

A major problem with/for new boaters is that they do not understand the "warrantee" situation on new build narrowboats, especially one off that it sounds like the OP wants. They seem to think buying new will provide many years of trouble free boating when the truth is/can be very different. I get the impression that unresolved warrantee issues, especially of a major nature probabaly outnumber those resolved. if they can't be resolved in one or two quick visits they are unlikely to be. If the purchaser decides to take the court route the builder is likely to liquidate the company. Far better to let a first owner do all the snagging and then buy the boat second hand. The OP also needs to understand that unless you learn to and are happy to DIY boat owning and maintaining is an expensive business and the price limit suggests to me the OP may not have the money for ongoing professional help

Unless you are an experienced narrowboater so your wants are based on real experience you may be better advised to buy a second-hand boat boat with a layout that you think you want and try it for a while. There is a very good chance that what you think you want now may well change after a while living aboard. When you know what you really need than buy new. However a decent second-hand boat is likely to be far more cost effective than new.

Excellent post. The other way of looking at it is that we have burnt 2,000,000,000 years worth of stored carbon in the last 200 years, and most of it in the last 50. That's a lot of stored sunshine we won't be getting back anytime soon.

Can I have a go? This is how I understand it. Conservation of mass: carbon isn't created on earth, just moved around. Plants are made of carbon from the atmosphere. Animals are made out of the carbon from plants. While the carbon is in biomass, it's not causing a greenhouse effect, but whenever plants and animals rot or burn, their carbon is released straight back into the atmosphere. All plants and animals die so biomass is all temporary and it's carbon neutral. Nowadays oxygen is about 20% of the atmosphere. Originally there was no free oxygen in the atmosphere - all of the oxygen was combined with carbon. This can't support animal life. Oxygen is reactive and doesn't really exist by itself except as produced by plants. Two billion years ago a large amount of the atmospheric carbon was naturally sequestered when ancient biomass became fossil fuels. That great oxygenation event is the source of the majority of the free oxygen that we breathe today. Now we are un-sequestering that carbon and converting the atmosphere back towards the ancient one. Pretty much everything that we do is carbon neutral except mining fossil fuels. If we stopped mining fossil fuels, the world would become carbon neutral overnight. There's nuance of course. Methane (CH4) is worse than CO2, cement production also releases carbon from non-fossil sources, local air quality, etc. But the basics is conservation of mass. If you accept this then it's easy to see why biofuels are good - they are carbon neutral while sequestering carbon the entire time they are being produced and stored. Biofuels are a leveraging of photosynthesis - a natural solar panel. I'd say the biggest problem with biofuels is the amount of land that they take up. But I think they can and should form a part of the transition. If we can stop using oil 1 year sooner because of biofuels it's worth it - they are infinitely better for the planet than fossil.

Your going to waste a lot of money if you don’t do jobs like this yourself. Not a hard job, sounds like you don’t want to get your hands dirty? This is basic and if your not prepared to do jobs like this then maybe having a boat is not for you. Or you should of bought a brand new one with a freshly painted engine bay and no dirt.

Except as privileged people they should be setting a visible example of best practice. It should be dead easy to stop the hugging - just make it known that the offending clubs would be banned from playing a make sure its done.

I agree but could this cause food shortages? Also it still produces NOX, I prefer electric where possible and hydrogen produced by excess electricity from wind turbines. Lastly biodiesel for things that are older technology, like our boats until the engine dies anyway and then convert to something cleaner. But a great post that makes us think

What's Boris doing there?

Been around for longer than that. Built around the Millennienniennium, along with the Dome and the Bridge. Originally called the Millennium Wheel. Jen

Association Football: Eleven players on each side running around a field for 90 minutes, pretending to be injured. Rugby Football: Fifteen* players on each side running around a field for 80 minutes, pretending not to be injured. youtube linky *other codes are available, eg pyjama rugby

Real 'slapstick' comedy. "D'you want it pasturize? 'Cause pasturize is best, " She says, "Ernie, I'll be happy if it comes up to my chest."

We may see a lot more of these : My offices in Wythenshawe (Manchester) were very close to the big dairy - when I was going into work at a round 7:00 am, was about the time that the fleet of milk-floats were returning from their rounds, every day there were at least a couple that hadn't quite made it back, and a few others creeping along at 0.001mph to try and make the last few 100 yards.

This is quite an old setup https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/blog/electric-propulsion/

Just need Greg further up to sell his place.

Be careful, very very careful !!

If you mean real craftmanship using 'real' wood and good quality materials, I very much doubt you'd achieve your budget. Everyone has a different idea of craftsmanship - it could be 'totally hand built cabinets from real wood, made to measure' or it could be 'MFI units, hand modified and cut down to suit your boat' The more you vary from 'the standard' that a boat builder offers the more it will cost. The manufacturers "extras" price list for items fitted during the build on one of my boats totals over £100,000 (its not a NB & I have very few of the optional extras) Things like a 'saloon door curtain' is over £300, cushions for the stern £1,300 etc etc. I strongly suggest that you consider electric propulsion (it will cost possibly £10,000 more due to the batteries, generator, and solar panel costs) but from 2025 all boats built in the UK must be capable of being conveted to 'zero emission' propulsion and by 2035 NO boats are allowed to be built unless they have zero emission' propulsion and by 2050 NO boats will be allowed on UK water (Inland and coastal) unless they are zero-emmission propulsion. This means that diesel powered boats being built in the next few years will likely depreciate very quickly as people are unlikely to buy a non-zero emmission propulsion boat as the dealine gets closer.

So a boatyard have told you the engine must come out to do the job properly (and I agree). And you think getting some bod off the street to try and do the job working around the engine will give you an acceptable result?

Naughty-Cal is all stocked up, filled up and packed up and ready to head onto the Trent and Soar for a couple of weeks. Assuming of course Boris doesn't announce anything tonight that scuppers that plan! We have a loose plan to head maybe as far as Mountsorrel but a lot will of course depend on the weather and any Covid restrictions we come across along the way. Just to have some time away from home will be nice having lived and worked there now since March. Tide times are not great for Saturday and getting up to Cromwell. It looks like we will be leaving Torksey late at about 4.30pm which won't leave us too much leeway to get to Cromwell before dark, hence the need to fix the navigation lights last weekend. A bit of a hand this week from the weather gods would be useful to stick a bit of fresh in the river for us and let us get out of Torksey a bit earlier.