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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.

It is NOT illegal. Millions throw nappies away. Where do you get this nonsense from? Have you not travelled abroad? Many many countries put soiled toilet paper in bins and not down the toilet as do many with pump out tanks on boats or sea toilets on lumpy water boats. Years ago, everyone used terry towelling nappies - in the 80's they switched to plastic ones that go in the bin and nothing has changed since. Where do you think parents throw them?

Only if it's the same people who pootle along slowly in diesel boats... ? (as Peter says, electric boats are just as fast as diesel if you want them to be, they've got plenty of power and accelerate faster) To answer Peter's comment, I agree that a big prop turning slowly is always the best solution, it's why when I was looking at a parallel hybrid I was going to use a 2.8:1 gearbox with a 4 blade 20"x16" prop instead of the standard 2:1 with 3 blade 18"x12" prop. Unfortunately with direct drive almost all electric motors spin too fast for this, most run at about 1500rpm at maximum torque/power means using a smaller prop (e.g. 14"x 9") -- or using an even bigger motor (e.g. 50% higher rating) at below rated speed (e.g. 1000rpm) to drive a bigger prop The alternative is to use a gearbox (cost, losses...) or a toothed belt drive, which wears and tends to whine a bit and is likely to break if the prop jams suddenly on a piece or wood, there's no clutch to limit torque by slipping like in a gearbox. Lots of series hybrids today do this though, because it means you can use a much smaller cheaper high-speed motor and save several thousand quid...

But surly I just stand at the helm and let the wife run round doing the work, or have I got that wrong? ?

No Bob I had a quick race last year the length of Eastwood moorings left him for dead! He was amazed that my boat was so fast off the mark. I am only bothered about silent cruising its just so relaxing, but that instant power is so good for stopping and manoeuvring

OMG. Does that mean we will see a load of boats with a big sign dangled over the back saying "I'm going slow 'cause we are electric"?