Price of diesel in france

[gtuson]

Just been reading Colin Jones's Liveaboard Diary in Feb issue. He says that it is possible to register ones boat as 'fishing or passenger vessel' and thus get cheaper fuel in france. Could he or anyone else tell me how to do this? It sounds too simple somehow!

 

[kimhollamby]

Colin Jones is here on the forums and you can private message him at colin_jones

I've personally never heard of a way of this happening before. You can legitimately use red diesel for domesting purposes on a boat in France (ie heating, cooking and power generation) but you have to install completely separate fuel systems to handle red and white (ie no feul cross-overs, easy means of decanting fuel or, if the boat has been in France long enough, any signs that recent red diesel has been in the engine supply). Even so some of the commercial fuel barges will be very nervous of supplying you because they can be fined very heavily and lose their licence if caught doing the wrong thing.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[colin_jones]

Nobody says that it is simple, but we should be aware that there is a reciprocal agreement between France and UK to give bona fide commercial operators of fishing trawlers, working angling boats going about their business and passenger ferries - irrespective of size - the same price priveleges as are enjoyed by their native counterparts. This does not apply to charter yachts and yachts taking in paying guests.

The info comes from French customs at Brest and from the fuel dock at Camaret. Some harbours also operate a 'minimum quantity' policy of not selling less than 300 litres at a time.

Having seen the cost and rigmarole involved in getting full commercial registration in UK, a personal opinion is that I should prefer to pay the road price of French diesel - which is anyway less than UK.