Up-Side-Down

Can anyone tell me anything about Robin Summers, narrowboat builder (and decorative metalworker)? Is it purely a coincidence that there is a similarity between his boats and those built by GT Boat Builder, in which the 'T' stands for Tony (Summers)?

I believe https://www.premierlubricants.co.uk/manufacturers/morris-lubricants are effectively Morris's under another name ... with a cheaper pricing regime. Just don't ask me how or why!

One of the main proponents of the concept also markets what he calls a Bank Manager: https://www.emilyandclarksadventure.com/bbms/buy. There are several YouTube videos put out under his banner introducing and developing the concept and people can draw their own conclusions as to whether it's a road they might want to go down. Having explored it I decided very definitely it was not for me, although certain aspects are quite seductive on a first meeting!

A strategy that, one day, will lead to a very interesting conversation with a BSS examiner!

I find this rather curious having stumbled across it a day or so ago. Can anyone throw any further light on the situation?

As a corporate member of the IWA you would be eligible for cover for just about everything boat-related through them. I can pretty much guarantee that savings to be made with them will cover your corporate membership fee several times over. As a boat on the Scottish canals you will find that many of the business/charity craft around you are IWA insured. https://waterways.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/08-Insurance.pdf Quickest way to get the full picture is to contact Neil on 01494 783453; neil (at) waterways {dot} org [dot] uk.

'Doing the right thing' gets harder day by day and sustainable living will always be something of a compromise as the observations above bear testament! In my view the best boat heating compromise comes down to Ecoal or HVO in some form of 'diesel' stove. At 90% carbon neutral. with low NoX and PMs (including the insidious PM 2.5s) HVO takes a lot of beating. It gets rid of all the dust associated with burning any form of solid fuel and is totally 'self-stoking'. It burns much, much cleaner than mineral diesel and, once the hydrogen used in the manufacturing process is green, it will become pretty much a 100% carbon neutral fuel. Now that the joint IWA/RYA/CA HVO working group has succeeded in persuading DfT that all HVO consumed on inland waterways boats (regardless of whether used for propulsion or domestic purposes) attracts the same subsidy, it's going to become much more attractive (and less complex) for marinas to stock. The Group is now working on making it more affordable and available across the entire recreational boating sector to embrace lumpy water boats, and commercial vessels operating in Class C tidal waters, as well as inland waterways craft. The current RTFC 'subsidy' arrangements are no longer working to make pricing competitive against mineral diesel, so a new mechanism is clearly required. This may well be built on the back of the George Eustice amendment to the recent Environment Act (October 2023) which allows for a 12 month consultation period to find ways of making HVO affordable to rural house dwellers looking to fire their oil boilers with the fuel rather than having to invest in what (very often) is unviable heat pump technology.

But taking the bigger picture, just look at all the valuable discussion and knowledge that has been culled from around the subject. CWDF at its very best.

I can't help feeling that solar-powered cruising and the prevailing stoppage regime will prove to be highly compatible ...

I believe this is worth more than a quick glance: https://cadalcraft.co.uk/about/

From the boat perspective, when you boil it down to basics, HVO is pivotal ...

That's certainly a damned good starting point. In fact I wouldn't mind pretty much finishing there!

I think most of us do. It's probably deeply embedded in our DNA! There just happens to be a big 'HOWEVER' that sooner or later we'll have to come to terms with. And that will be a struggle ... a big one ....

Off-grid, fossil-free and not burning stuff is a real challenge for us all but I think, potentially, marginally easier for those living on boats. But it does involve compromises, giving up stuff and accepting an element of inconvenience. As we're all different (and so are our circumstances) we each play with balancing a slightly different equation. The fact that, in our different ways, we're having a crack at it is the key thing in my mind.

Let's say that all your heating, cooking and hot water came from 90% carbon neutral HVO, as a starting point in winter ........ (oh and we could envisage a brave new world where surplus renewable leccy was used to {inefficiently} produce hydrogen to manufacture the HVO, thereby making it almost 100% carbon neutral) ......