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Steilsteven

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Everything posted by Steilsteven

  1. I see this "discussion" has gone round in circles since I last contributed, and, as usual, deteriorated into the usual bickering and holier than thou attitudes from the usual suspects.
  2. That's partly correct, I have a filter system for most needs except drinking water which I estimate will last at least three months ( new filter system that I installed about a month ago ). We spend half the year on the Thames and half the year on the Kennet. Burn solid waste but not plastic as I think that is a bad thing to do. Everything else I take to recycling centres. Compost toilet waste which is stored for three months on board initially. Keith
  3. Highly unlikely that it will be cheaper than a standard licence plus surcharges as they would be applied proportionately. Currently my Gold licence costs less than a Thames registration but much more than a standard CRT licence including the wb surcharge. Keith
  4. Well I can tell you that this ccer doesn't generate any more of the direct costs you mention than a boater who takes his boat out one week a year. Keith
  5. What makes you think that they will even try to justify it? Keith
  6. Which goes to prove what I always say, these "consultations" are really simple polls with inevitable results. Keith
  7. Yes I expect so but excitement followed by frustration within a few minutes is a scenario that I thought was well in the past for me!😉
  8. Got mine yesterday too. I carefully followed the instructions to pay it into my online bank account and just at the point when the transaction would have completed I got an error message telling me to contact Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. This I duly did and am now waiting for what happens next. Not impressed.
  9. You could sell it back to Calor, I think they pay £7 for them. Keith
  10. Yes they are quite big and probably too big for anything that uses our canals. Keith
  11. I shall be spending it on my Winter fuel, other bills will have to take their chances. Keith
  12. Some Dutch barge owners in Europe have installed one of these but they are eye wateringly expensive. https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/scienco-fast/product-33374-208418.html They can't be used legally in the UK until they are approved by the E A and for that to happen someone needs to install one and then seek approval. Keith
  13. France introduced charging by area some years ago but more recently reverted to charging by length and you don't pay if you don't go anywhere! Keith
  14. Sawn and treated timber is kept outside but not prepared timber, at the very least it's kept under cover. Keith
  15. BWHM is the correct term if you don't mind. Keith
  16. Taken from K&ACT website - Working the Canal – The Boats & Barges Types of craft Narrow boats and Kennet barges were the primary craft used on the Kennet and Avon Canal.The canal company specified that these had to be of the following dimensions: Approved barge (Class A) – 69 feet (21m) long x 5 feet (1.5m) deep x 12ft 4ins (3.8m) beam, with a capacity of 60 tons. Approved boat (Class A) – 69 feet long x 4 feet (1.2m) deep x 6 ft 11ins (2.1m)beam with a capacity of 35 tons. Non-approved vessels (Class – to the maximum dimensions of 69 feet long x 5 feet deep x 14 feet (4.3m) beam, with a capacity of 70 tons. The company also approved a boat it called the mule boat (wide boat).This had the same dimensions as the approved barge except that the beam was 10 feet (3m) giving it a capacity of approximately 50 tons. While the cabin of the barge was below the rear deck with access by a companionway, the mule by comparison had the appearance of an over wide narrow boat. The barges indeed may have had rounded chines but they also drew a great deal more than any modern canal pleasure craft today. Keith Some additional history https://rbt.org.uk/john-rennie/projects/kennet-avon-canal-overview/
  17. The Kennet navigation was originally built for barges 110' x 17' and a few of the locks of this size remain today. The Kennet and Avon Canal Company's recommended dimensions for barges on their canal was 69' x 12'9'' I seem to remember from the K&ACT website. A couple of the Kennet Navigation locks were rebuilt to the K&A canal dimensions and during ''restoration'' a number of the locks were resited close to the originals and built from steel pilings and to smaller dimensions, Burghfield lock and Sulhamstead lock were given oversized cills which prevent historic narrow boat pairs from locking down together. From a personal viewpoint, 'Petra' being 66' x 12' has proven to be an ideal size for this waterway and preferable ( especially on the Kennet ) than any narrow boat. Keith I agree with all of that and would add that the canal wasn't intended for boats to moor wherever they like along the towpath, the were expected to travel from wharf to wharf. Keith Likewise narrow canals were built for narrow boats pulled by an 'oss.
  18. I find the thought of buying a boat in this country and parting with huge amounts of money to be thoroughly scary since buying Petra in the Netherlands and how secure it was there. Over there buying a boat is much like buying a house as boats are registered with the land registry, and like buying a house the sale requires both parties to employ a notary. Both parties have to provide proof of identity and, once checks have been carried out, a deed is produced. The deed is forwarded to the Kadaster ( land registry ) who then forwards a registration certificate to the new owner and the previous owner's details are removed from the registry.The notary handles the deposit and final payment. Keith
  19. Having finally caught up with this thread I see that nothing actually changes under the Sun and the same old tired accusations are still being peddled. At the same time most claim that there is no divisiveness when there clearly is. The point of the "consultation" is claimed to be a search for ideas on how to raise additional income for CRT due to the ending of government funding but, like the previous "consultation", it is nothing of the sort. It is a poll. The nonsense of it being that if only certain boats have to pay the increase it won't even scratch the surface of the revenue needed. Keith
  20. Yes I'm fully aware, I very rarely do anything without thoroughly researching it first. As they give full details of the production process they could hardly be described as pretending anything. The options were diesel or GTL or nothing. Yes I only recently discovered the propulsion only bit when in conversation with Jonathan Mosse, even though New Era had been happily supplying me red HVO for two years purely for heating/generating. Below Is Jonathan's email showing what we are up against. GTL is about the same price as HVO btw. It's all got ridiculously complicated, Keith, as three quite separate things come into play: 1) The RTFO which is administered by DfT and spawns RTFCs in support of eligible biofuels 2) Fuel Duty which is administered by HMRC 3) VAT ditto And this is the order I like to think of them in to avoid further confusion! For propulsion in a commercial inland waterways vessel (see HMRC website for definition of 'inland waterways') HVO attracts i) two RTFCs currently valued at £0.25 each = £0.50/litre. It also attracts ii) duty @ £0.1114/litre and iii) VAT @ 5%. (when I was buying HVO a year ago RTFCs were worth £0.42 each which is another reason, alongside scarcity of feedstock, why the price has shot up). For propulsion in a leisure inland waterways vessel it attracts i) two RTFCs currently valued at £0.25 each = £0.50/litre. It also attracts ii) duty @ approx £0.56/litre and iii) VAT @ 20%. For domestic use (anything other than propulsion) it attracts i) £0.00 in RTFCs whether it be used in commercial or leisure vessels. It also attracts ii) duty @ £0.1114/litre and iii) VAT @ 5%. However, every commercial vessel operating on the Thames is now powered by HVO and to my knowledge they all have some form of heating aboard – be that a diesel-fired central heating boiler (rapidly going out of service as, with HVO effectively burning hotter than MGO, the heat exchangers are burning out) Refleks-type stoves or auxiliary generators powering electric central heating boilers, cooking, lighting, etc. The tugs are crewed 24/7 so the crew are living aboard during the week. No one has yet shouted foul here, even though these vessels are back and forth past Westminster on a rather regular basis! This just serves to emphasise how crazy the situation is in my mind .......... You might be interested to know that I finally persuaded Scottish Canals (SC – the Nav Authority) to stock HVO which they are now running all their road vehicles, plant and machinery on. They will also sell to boaters. If they tried to price the fuel as per my list above it would be a total nightmare so they are buying in DERV (white HVO) which carries the two RTFCs (as it's ostensibly for propulsion) + the full duty + VAT @ 20%. I believe they're paying about £2.02/litre from Johnstone Oils (supplied by Crown) and selling to boaters at £2.16/litre. Simple but pricey!! No doubt as clear as mud! BTW It's probably the first time I've written it all out in one go so I only hope I've got it right! Ironically, the 'body' would have remained buried (in effect what is happening on the Thames) if SC hadn't decided to do due diligence when contemplating stocking HVO and it was at that point that the differential between propulsion and domestic (DfT and DfBEIS!) came to light and, like a pebble thrown into a pond, the ripples have continued to ripple out killing the use of the fuel on the inland waterways stone dead. Kind regards, Jonathan
  21. They did the same thing on the K&A near Aldermaston and the work never happened!
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