Belgium Again!

With a coastline under 40 miles long it is easy enough to go right on by.and avoid risk of unpleasantness. OK Belgium, I know where we are not wanted, Message received and understood. besides cheap plonk beats gnats pee anytime..

It’s enough to be in their territorial waters so travelling from France to the Holland and avoiding Belgium in a boat is going to make for quite a long trip I’m afraid.
 
It’s enough to be in their territorial waters so travelling from France to the Holland and avoiding Belgium in a boat is going to make for quite a long trip I’m afraid.

That may be true, but I don't think anyone has been fined without entering a Belgian port up to now, so probably a low risk.
 
Do the Dutch care, if the stuff is pink/brown/uranium-glowing or just the tax paid status? Latter is easy, I refill with white and bring the receipt - former needs cleaning or many refills.

When I was boarded just inside the Flushing lock, they said "No red in cans, and receipts showing tax paid ,dated no earlier than one year previous, for fuel in boat tanks. Any contravention was 4.50 euro/l for total tank capacity not quantity of fuel carried." That was a couple of years ago, so attitudes may have changed but it won't have improved.
 
So how does it work when I go and fill up my car (with white of course) and at the same time I fill a 20l jerry can? The receipt will show and amount that can’t possibly be for the boat alone AND it’ll be from an inland fuel station.
 
So how does it work when I go and fill up my car (with white of course) and at the same time I fill a 20l jerry can? The receipt will show and amount that can’t possibly be for the boat alone AND it’ll be from an inland fuel station.

But it will be white so no problem, you only have to show the receipt for the red stuff.
 
So how does it work when I go and fill up my car (with white of course) and at the same time I fill a 20l jerry can? The receipt will show and amount that can’t possibly be for the boat alone AND it’ll be from an inland fuel station.

And who is supposed to sign the receipt? How do they check who was working on the fuel berth that day? And most of them are automated un-manned systems these days. I suppose I could take the ticket home and get a neighbour to sign it.
 
And who is supposed to sign the receipt? How do they check who was working on the fuel berth that day? And most of them are automated un-manned systems these days. I suppose I could take the ticket home and get a neighbour to sign it.

Why does it have to be signed? An automated receipt should be considered to be verified, especially if it also includes a credit card receipt with cryptograms, authorisation codes etc.

Mike.
 
Is the Continental white fame free

My Yanmar has never run on red diesel, nor white, bought in UK. It was installed in Holland in about 1999, has done 2600 hours since then, all on Continental road fuel. Most seasons I use at least a tank full but did not get to the boat in 2017, so that tank full was at least 18 months old. I have to assume that some of this fuel contained FAME but up to now no fuel problems whatsoever.
 
That's the issue and an interesting point. Why did Belgian customs become so obsessed with what is a relatively minor directive at least as far as the leisure marine industry is concerned which costs Belgium nothing whilst the rest of the EU countries customs officers and their bosses couldn't give a damn?



Yes. I wondered at the outset, and am still wondering still, why the UK Government has clung to the concession so steadfastly?

Politicians are not universally known for standing up for the rights of the common man, leave alone yachtpersons and motorboatists. Binning the lot, at the outset, would lose a few votes and then be rapidly forgotten.

Perhaps I am being cynical or just so used to being sold up the river that I have learnt to expect it.
 
Yes. I wondered at the outset, and am still wondering still, why the UK Government has clung to the concession so steadfastly?

Politicians are not universally known for standing up for the rights of the common man, leave alone yachtpersons and motorboatists. Binning the lot, at the outset, would lose a few votes and then be rapidly forgotten.

Perhaps I am being cynical or just so used to being sold up the river that I have learnt to expect it.

It is strange - I have also wondered. The UK government seems to have made itself vulnerable to significant fines by supporting the unreasonable demands of a tiny fraction of the electorate. I blame the RYA!
 
Yup try Duval then.:p

Er, that would be DUVEL...


I lived in Belgium for many years, and one of the rather obscure local slang words that I came across was "geduvelled". Which means, inebriated, blotto, three-sheets-to-the-wind, so drunk that you can't walk, talk or say your name... wonderful stuff, Duvel! Made in a big industrial plant just off the main Brussels to Antwerp road, deservedly popular world-wide, but has its drawbacks. You could probably run your boat's motor on it, too and save all this red v white botheration!
 
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