I'm hoping to buy an outboard powered small day boat in a partnership.
The petrol duty is levied for road use, so I should be able to recover that duty on fuel for marine use. Is there any mechanism for doing this or this another dirty little tax?
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TGW
I don't know about marine petrol, but I do know that marine diesel is sold without the road associated tax, and it's typically supplied by the boatyards and fuelling people at ports and harbours. I suppose you could phone one of the harbour authorities and enquire about local purchase of marine fuel.
Ian
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I sort of know what you mean about this being unfair but a smallish outboard on a (river?) day-boat uses so little fuel in "cost vs pleasure" terms you won't even think about it.
You'll get two days cruising about for the cost of 1hrs hire from the put-put fleet operators.
David
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Im afraid thats why most people who buy petrol powered boats sell them very quickly when they realise the cost of petrol. In general with boat engines Diesel is the only way to go in my opinion. Having said that if your outboard is under say 40- 50 HP you may decide the expense is worth it. I realise that there are also practical reasons for having an outboard.
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John,
If you are talking cruisers with inboard engines John that is fair enough. I had assumed about a 16-18ft day boat with an 8hp outboard.
David
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In weston-super-mare a lot of people run there petrol boats on lpg using fork lift bottles instead on autogas tanks i believe the fuel works out about 19p a litre i dont know what size the engine you are talking about is but its certainly worth while on the powerboats
dave
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David
Fair comment and I suppose I was meaning the larger cruiser but I know of several fishermen with dayboats and large outboards. They end up looking for small inboard diesel engines.
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Yes John, take a look at a line-up of £15K river cruisers and the petrol one will be the last to sell.
They burn well though!
David
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In answer to your orginal question: Yes its another dirty little tax.
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Yes you have to pay the tax, and in my experience marine petrol, when it is available, is usually more expensive than the local garage, hence you sometimes see outfits filling up in the Esso station.
As for marine/red diesel I hope I'm wrong here and the situation has changed, but its always seemed odd to me that the diesel with the lowest tax rate is the stuff with the highest sulphur content, and therefore potentially the most particulates.
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Is there not locally a provision for filling with untaxed marine fuel?
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The dive boat used by the guys who put me through my PADI course off Langkawi had two 200bhp Yamahas on the back. It was a hideous looking catamaran with no screen and a full length flat awning, but that didn't hold it back. At 4,750 rpm it was doing 45knots. At 5,400rpm on a flat sea it was doing 50 knots. Apparently the engines are much more economical at 4,750rpm than at 4,000rpm or lower because at the higher revs the boat is planing so there's less to push along. I obviously don't recommend this on Britain's rivers and inland waterways though where small Honda four-stroke outboards are apparently much kinder to the environment than two strokes and diesels.
HJ
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