Momac
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Posts posted by Momac
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20 minutes ago, JungleJames said:
Anyways, the main point being, nothing is carbon neutral. Nothing is perfectly green.
This is generally correct.
The CO2 breathed out by humans is not counted in carbon calculations
So things you do physically with hand tools can be the closest thing to carbon neutral and could be carbon negative eg planting a a tree or growing vegetables.
HVO , if made from vegetable bi products like the unwanted stalks of vegetable plants or from spent cooking oil, would be a great fuel. But I believe a lot of energy is required to make it so it can never be carbon neutral.
The cutting down of rain forest to grow palms for HVO production is clearly not sustainable but this is my main worry against HVO as the fuel retailers cannot be certain of the source of the fuel on a world market. Rain forests cannot be reinstated. They are the lungs of the earth. If we remove them will will die. The suppliers must prove there is no rain forest destruction involved but I am not sure this is possible.
But really HVO if it could be proven to be truly sustainably sourced is a perfect replacement for diesel and instantly reduces emissions and thought to be not prone to bug.
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4 hours ago, JungleJames said:
These wood chips are leading to unnecessary deforestation in places like Canada.
So not only are we emitting the carbon stored in the trees, but we now have less trees and so no ability to absorb the CO2 produced by the wood chips.
You are probably better off keeping the Welsh coal mines open, and keeping the Canadian forests to help offset it.
Its sustainable if they plant new trees to replace the removed tress.
The trees were planted in the first place for paper pulp but books and newspapers are much less used these days so there is reduced demand. Therefore the use of the same fast growing trees for fuel instead of paper pulp isn't such a bad idea.
Transporting the wood pellets from Canada to the UK however does seem bonkers
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Narrowboats are designed and built specifically for the UK canals. Only the very adventurous take them to sea and then only in benign conditions.
2metre waves will almost certainly sink a narrowboat.
A lumpy water boat may be able to do some canals but likely to be uncomfortable and possibly unwelcome and certainly not able to do narrow canals.
One boat to do both jobs is not possible.
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We just bought an air fryer and tried it the first time yesterday evening at home. Hopefully it will not join my wife's collection of unused kitchen gadgets.
From a boating perspective we would be using the air fryer when hooked up to shore power which we have at our home mooring and at some locations we visit on our travels on salty water. Similarly we have an electric kettle on the boat for use with shore power.
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6 minutes ago, dmr said:
Has anybody actually said HVO is carbon neutral?
Yes. See earlier post from Jupiter1124 .
Really I do think HVO is potentially an ideal boat fuel but not acceptable if it involves cutting down rainforest to grow palm oil. Cut out the rain forest destruction and use otherwise waste vegetable matter to make HVO and that would be great.
Equally hauling wood from Canada to fire a power station in the UK is not carbon neutral. Better than burning coal but not carbon neutral.
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3 minutes ago, dmr said:
There appears to be an argument "HVO is not perfect so I will just stick with dinodiesel".
I did not say that .
I would be very much in favour of HVO if it is responsibly sourced. But I am not convinced that it is .
My objection is to the inaccurate use of the term 'carbon neutral'
HVO certainly is low emission so better than diesel . But that doesn't make it carbon neutral.
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9 minutes ago, jupiter1124 said:
Yes, it is.
Energy is required to produce HVO and to deliver the fuel.
No fuel is carbon neutral unless it involves no fossil fuel and it is produced and delivered to its point of use by a non industrial process.
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3 hours ago, Mike Tee said:
maybe it should be 'unflammable'
non-combustible or incombustible might be better terms
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4 hours ago, jupiter1124 said:
HVO should probably be completely exempt from all additional duty besides regular VAT. It makes no sense that a "sin tax" would be applied to discourage people from using it, since it's basically carbon neutral and much cleaner than regular diesel
HVO is not carbon neutral.
HVO emissions from an engine are certainly less than Diesel.
HVO at present requires rain forest destruction to grow palm for oil.
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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:
Do boat builders still self certify for RCR like they did with RCD?
The manufacturer takes sole responsibility for declaring conformity with the standards. This applies to all products that are CE or UKCA marked.
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Round turn and two half hitches
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9 minutes ago, IanD said:
If CART took "proper business advice" -- meaning, how to make them commercially viable -- then almost certainly this would mean closing canals (maybe lots of them...) and charging boaters a *lot* more, because this would reduce expenditure and increase income. It's the same business model the railways took, maximise income by cropping the network back to the essentials only and squeezing as much money as possible out of "customers" who have little choice except to pay up.
Good for business, but a terrible model for infrastructure -- and it would certainly transform the canals by driving off all those poor scruffy boaters who can't afford to pay up... 😞
I may be wrong thought it was said elsewhere that closing canals was not legally permitted?
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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
C&RT & BW previously have obviously never received much (any ?) training about business expansion.
Well that did quite well with BWML which they then appeared to give away .
Getting rid of the profitable bit seems like a deliberately destructive act.
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People who feel they should pay more and wish to pay more to C&RT are free to do so since C&RT are a charity and they accept donations.
I don't think license fees should have any connection with the age of the boat although I believe some very old boats are already licensed at a favourable rate . An old boat has the same navigational requirement as a new boat of the same size. My boat is 20 years old. Does that count as ''old''?
As for means testing of the boater that's a non starter since C&RT are not in a position to ask questions about income and savings.
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I wonder whether the above pictured pontoon at Dunham survived the winter floods.
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18 hours ago, Midnight said:
Why don't crt just raise fees for all
They have raised fees for all
Some more than others
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21 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:
How shall we identify them?
Its not for the boater to spot whether other boats are licensed or not.
C&RT say they don't want boaters to act as spotters as they have rangers who perform that task.
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Really the first step would be to draw off more water to see if the problem persists.
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34 minutes ago, peterboat said:
Mine is tomorrow at 1230 180 squids in my case
That's a good price.
For me this was the third BSS on the same boat by this surveyor.
Will you attend during the exam ?
I prefer not to be present and have never attended a BSS exam.
I used to do house surveys and always thought the presence of the owner a distraction.
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A brief update
The BSS exam was completed today. No changes relevant to the BSS have bee made to the boat since last time. The (almost) 4 years since the previous BSS test has gone very fast.
The fee is £220 which is a bit more than I had anticipated but nothing unusual in that.
At least it has passed with no expense on modifications or upgrades and with no comments.
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32 minutes ago, Midnight said:
What happened to Winter Maintenance?
Maybe there should be an online system for boaters to alert C&RT to maintenence that is required. Clearly C&RT can't be expected to inspect and test every lock and every element of its infrastructure in detail.
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13 minutes ago, LadyG said:
Yes but that is when i get confused, the map does not show my sightings.
The sightings button produces a list of any sightings. It is possible there are none.
Its up to you to plot the sighting positions if you wish.
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1 hour ago, LadyG said:
Hmm, unfortunately i can't find this heading BOATS, where is it?
I think you must be almost there
Click on ''My Boats'' on your main login page
On the next page on your boat details is the option to click on ''sightings''
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Seems like a pointless regulation . While a wood burner may not be fitted in a new build home there is law against fitting a wood burner in an existing home.
Building a Category C narrowboat!
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Tidal stream charts on the following
Hourly tidal streams North Sea, Southern part : by VisitMyHarbour [Tidal Streams] - VisitMyHarbour articles