Red diesel worries…

David Evans sent a letter to Scuttlebutt Europe this morning warning boaters that the Belgian authorities are taking a rather dim view of any red diesel in UK boat  tanks in their waters…

“The hard line approach that the Belgian authorities have been adopting in relation to yachts having red diesel in their tanks has been ratcheted up to levels that effectively preclude any UK yachts visiting Belgium or even transiting inside their 12 mile territorial waters, they have even stopped transiting yachts at sea to test their tanks.

“The Belgian interpretation of the EU rules is that red diesel is prohibited for any leisure use, the UK Government interpretation of these Rules is different as they just require red diesel to have duty paid where the red diesel is used for propulsion, red diesel used for heating being duty exempt.

“Over the last couple of months many yachts that have adopted the RYA recommended measures (keeping receipts ensuring these state in typed text on the receipt that UK fuel duty has been paid; ensuring receipt is less than 12 months old; keeping a fuel usage/motoring hours log; not having red diesel in standby cannisters, keeping the letter from the EU – available on the RYA web-site) have been completely ignored by the Belgian authorities.

“Interestingly in the UK we actually pay a higher rate of Duty on red diesel used for propulsion than the Belgians pay on their white diesel! The yacht most recently fined to my knowledge was Zero Gravitas, an SJ320 fined last weekend (8/9 July 17), in Ostende whilst competing in the East Anglian Offshore Racing Association’s Triangle series of races.

“Fines for having more than 0.07% red traces in a fuel tank seem to be ranging between 500 – 750 Euros. (Note 0.07% is 7 parts in 10,000 of the contents of of a yachts tank!)

“Also being fined are any non-EU yachts, US and Norwegian in particular. Plus I have heard that Belgian, Dutch, German and French yachts that have fuelled-up in the UK and have some traces of red diesel in their tanks are being fined as well (even though it is not possible to fuel-up with white!)

“In the UK it is almost impossible to source white diesel for one’s yacht, even purchasing road diesel (not ideal for yachts due to its very short tank life – 3 months I am told) is not really possible as garages limit the amount that can be put into containers to circa 10 litres. This means that Belgium and its waters are now off-limits to most visiting yachts. It does make one wonder how the Belgian marinas, restaurants, bars etc etc feel about the loss of tourist revenue!

“As an active campaigner of a half-tonner, it is mooted that the 2018 Half Ton Classics Cup is likely to be held in Nieuwport Belgium, we will either need reassurances from the Belgian authorities or we must reconsider where this event should be held.

“For the benefit of non-UK yachts I understand that white diesel can be purchased at Ramsgate Marina, but I believe that this is the only marina on the south and east coats having this available, but for a UK yacht one wonders how many times a tank needs to be flushed and filters changed to get down to less than 0.07%.

“At a political level the UK Government, the EU and the Belgian Government clearly need their heads banging together, but until that happens, CAUTION IS THE WORD!”

This morning, the RYA website – on its warning of awkward exchanges with the Belgian Customs – added;

Update:
Following on from this request we have been notified that a group of three boats were each fined €500 in July 2017 in Nieuwpoort and two yachts were each fined €750 in July 2017 in Oostende.

Read more advice about red diesel abroad.