Red diesel - legal for propulsion or not?

[awol]

i get my diesel from my local oil merchants (deleted) there must be similar on mainland. i pay approx £21 for 20 litres.

They are going to be so pleased when they get a visit from the Excise. It may be that your use is agricultural or other permitted activity, but if it's for a non-commercial boat you may regret that post.

 

[NormanS]

This is what happens when you lobby. The RYA lobbied hard to preserve red diesel use in pleasure boats. The politicians gave way and the civil servants should have sorted the detail. Unfortunately our senior civil servants are only really interested in policy work and sorting the detail is both beneth their dignity and above thier capability. So the usual fudge was arranged and this was not compatible with agrements we made with the EU. So then a few of us ventured to the mainland and were told that use of red diesel in pleasure boats is against EU agreements - which it is.
I agree that the saving is not much on yachts and personally I would prefer to use white diesel all the time and not have hassle when I visit the EU. The trouble is how do I buy white diesel. The marina does not stock it and it is illegal & dangerous to haul round large numbers of jerry pocans.
So I am stuck with an unsatisfactory situation becuase of the inability of our civil service and politicians to organise practical solutions.
This is another example of the omni - shambles caused by the civil service being run by people with a very high intellect and great ability to pontificate but very poor ability to get things done in the real world. Made worse by career politicians who are not interested in much other than thier own career.
Other examples of this phenomienon are UK Boarder Agency, Child Support Agency, Health Service etc etc

I see no reason why the vast majority of boat owners in Britain, who mostly sail around our own coasts, should have to buy expensive white diesel, so that a minority can venture abroad. If you want to go abroad, you have to obey their rules, like using their currency, and driving on whichever side of the road that they do. If the countries that you wish to visit have different laws, you just have to comply. It's part of the challenge of going foreign. If you don't like it, don't go. Spend your money in this country instead. The economy will bless you for it.

 

[ianj99]

SO what happens with veg oil?
An idividual can use in their vehicles, their own home made bio fuel or veg oil upto 1500L per year without paying duty or vat on it. Most boat engines would happily run on veg oil, used or fesh or a blend of veg oil and white diesel. (Neat veg oil would need to be put through a heater to make it less viscous but that could be plumbed into the colling system)

I even heard of a farmer running his Landrover on waste hydraulic oil.

 

[Stork_III]

They are going to be so pleased when they get a visit from the Excise. It may be that your use is agricultural or other permitted activity, but if it's for a non-commercial boat you may regret that post.

Why? I can buy red diesel from my supplier for domestic use at £0.666/l (rebated duty £0.1114/l). For a 60/40 split this equates to £0.955/l inc VAT. SO £1.05/l seems perfectly "legal".

 

[Halo]

I see no reason why the vast majority of boat owners in Britain, who mostly sail around our own coasts, should have to buy expensive white diesel, so that a minority can venture abroad. If you want to go abroad, you have to obey their rules, like using their currency, and driving on whichever side of the road that they do. If the countries that you wish to visit have different laws, you just have to comply. It's part of the challenge of going foreign. If you don't like it, don't go. Spend your money in this country instead. The economy will bless you for it.

Fair comment - but how do you get the last traces of red diesel out of the sytem and thereby stick to "their" rules ?
My own belief is that our representatives signed up to these EU fuel regulations and then wriggled out when people started whinging. Its not the EU's fault that our lot did this and I cannot see why pleasure boats such as mine use red diesel when camper vans run on white.
I regard the EU as a blessing - our own politicians would never have forced the water companies to stop fouling beaches with raw sewage or the commercial fishermen from completely fishing out the fish stocks.