Good thing to improve engines

There is no point in getting bilious about the new engine standards. Even without the EU, it's obviously a good thing to ask industries to improve with time, writes Paul Burke.

Remember all those apocalypses about banning unleaded petrol? Canal boats shouldn't be an exception, and in any case the suppliers like Beta are only adding adapter plates to mass-produced engines. Kubota and the rest are producing engines by the million, and they will come up with units that meet the new standards because they like to survive.

Control unit

The only thing you will notice is that the new engines have an Electronic Control Unit that will need to be bolted on somewhere, and will get blamed for every failure whether it deserves it or not.

As for heritage engines, while an antique Lister or Bolinder is a joy to hear, don't forget that they represent the heritage of the very tail end (the last 50 years at most) of commercial canal boating: horses were the motive power for most of the time. The vast majority of boats have little beyond the outline dimensions in common with the working boat tradition, and there are often good reasons for that. And even back then, Tom Rolt used a petrol engine on Cressy.

Into next generation

I suspect that we are moving into the next generation of boat design. Perhaps engines of modern design, but with historical power (10-15HP rather than 30-50HP), perhaps Diesel will be replaced by gas (it's already cheaper for cars), perhaps new builds will use water jet propulsion. Hey, that would be going too far.

If the propulsion stream went through the boat rather than round it, boats could pass you at normal speed without a disturbance, and then the brass-polising whingers would have less to hyper-tense about. Unthinkable!