Sandrena
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry to see the red diesel issue being trotted out as evidence that the RYA don't care about motor boaters.
Years and years ago, I was involved in a small way with the RYA's efforts to protect us from the proposed changes. I helped write reports, and went to Westminster with Edmund Whelan (the RYA's legal eagle at the time) to meet with influential politicians.
The RYA put in a lot of effort to try to maintain the status quo (as it was), in spite of a fair bit of opposition from some of its sailing members who seemed to think that pricing motor boating out of existence would be a good thing.
And it worked... up to a point. It delayed the introduction of the new rules by at least four years, IIRC, so it may well have saved some motor boaters thousands of pounds, and probably saved most motor boaters the price of a lifetime's subscription to the RYA.
But it was, ultimately, an unwinnable argument. The 60:40 arrangement was the best compromise that anyone could realistically have hoped for, in that at least it keeps the price of UK marine diesel down to (roughly) the same as in the rest of the EU. Of course there are still issues, particularly for those with boats on the east coast, but most people still have the RYA to thank for the fact that marine diesel is not a lot more expensive than it is.
And as for anyone who blames it on the EU... I can see where you're coming from, but I think the chances of seeing the road fuel tax being removed from marine diesel when we finally leap over the Brexit cliff is about the same as the chance of seeing an extra £350million per week flooding into the NHS (virtually nil!)