Quiet Revolution? UK Sees New Breed of 'Green' Narrowboats

Motoring down the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal in England's West Midlands, Neil Cocksedge's narrowboat at first sight looks like most other vessels plying the country's famous network of scenic inland waterways.
But one feature, in particular, gives away that this is no ordinary narrowboat: its stealthy near-silence.
"The thing people notice about the electric boat is it's so much quieter -- we sneak up on fishermen!" Cocksedge told AFP proudly as he piloted it on a recent morning.
Named "Eau de Folles" -- after a now-shuttered Toulouse restaurant where he proposed to his wife decades ago -- the 20-month-old vessel is among a small but growing number propelled to varying degrees by electricity.
Batteries powering the engine and on-board appliances -- including an oven, fridge and kettle -- are recharged by solar panels on the roof, canalside charging points or a fuel-fed generator.
It can manage a day's cruising on primarily solar-generated power and, overall, uses a quarter of the diesel that traditional narrowboats guzzle, according to Cocksedge.
The 70-year-old retired steel industry executive is among those pioneering a switch to environmentally-friendly narrowboats, after more than a century of diesel-powered boats on Britain's pleasure cruising-dominated canals.
The slow shift is being driven by increasingly eco-conscious owners, financial incentives, increased exposure of canal lifestyles online -- and the added bonus of less noisy engines.
"We wanted to try and be as green as possible and also we like the quietness," explained Cocksedge, who bought the bespoke boat in May 2022 for leisure trips during warmer months.
"There's very few electric narrowboats around at the moment. They are gaining popularity though," he added.
Environmental incentives
Britain experienced its canal-building boom in the late 1700s when they were used to haul cargo, spurring the industrial revolution. But over the next century, they were largely supplanted by railways.
England and Wales still boast around 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) of navigable canals and linked rivers, with the West Midlands the epicenter.
Birmingham, its biggest city, proclaims to have more miles of canals than Venice.
Much of the network is often just seven feet (2.1 meters) wide, giving rise to Britain's so-called narrowboats.
Crossing idyllic countryside as well as urban areas, they have enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades as a place to live as well as for leisure.
But as the UK bids to decarbonize its transport and other sectors, attention has turned to the vast majority of narrowboats belching out diesel fumes.
"Because they last for so long... they tend to put out quite a lot of smutty smoke," said Cocksedge, noting the vessels typically host "old agricultural-type engines that have been marinized", converted for use in boats.
The government wants all maritime vessels to show from next year how they could be altered to meet the country's 2050 zero emissions target.
The Canal & River Trust (CRT), a charity which cares for the inland waterways, is encouraging uptake of electric-powered narrowboats.
It offers "greener" boat owners 25 percent discounts on mandatory annual licenses, and is also partnering in pilot schemes to install charging points at inner-city moorings.
It currently licenses around 35,000 boats in England and Wales, but only around one percent claim the discount, underlining what it calls the "massive undertaking" ahead.
Vlogging impact
"Less polluting solutions need to be found for boating power generation, heating and propulsion," a CRT spokeswoman said, noting more charging points in particular were needed across the canal network.
"The government and marine industry, as well as local councils and waterside developments and businesses, will have to play their part too."
Ortomarine, the narrowboat-maker behind "Eau de Folles", is one such partner.
Founded in 2015, it decided three years ago to focus exclusively on electric-propelled narrowboats.
"We could see a real niche in the market," explained financial director Caroline Badger from the firm's small workshop on a former military site southwest of Birmingham.
Its boats typically cost at least £150,000 ($190,000), around £25,000 more than many new diesel-powered vessels -- but then offering significantly lower running costs.
Badger noted narrowboats are "ideal" for electric propulsion because they have ample space for solar panels and bulky batteries, which can replace ballast, while they travel at consistent low speeds.
Ortomarine, which turns out up to six made-to-order boats a year, has a full order book until 2027.
"We could basically sell as many electric boats as we can build," Badger said, as staff worked busily on the latest vessel.
She noted video bloggers posting footage of the country's distinctive canal culture had boosted interest, especially post-pandemic.
"It's getting a worldwide audience... so it's a big promotional thing," she said, noting customers hail from Australia, South Africa and north America.
"Nowhere has the extent of canals that the UK has... going through some of the most beautiful countryside."

Women’s heart disease risks and their need to start taking preventive medications should be evaluated when they are in their 30s rather than well after menopause as is now the practice, said researchers who published a study on Saturday.

Presenting the findings at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in London, they said the study showed for the first time that simple blood tests make it possible to estimate a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease over the next three decades.

"This is good for patients first and foremost, but it is also important information for (manufacturers of) cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and lipoprotein(a)lowering drugs - the implications for therapy are broad," said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Reuters reported.

Current guidelines “suggest to physicians that women should generally not be considered for preventive therapies until their 60s and 70s. These new data... clearly demonstrate that our guidelines need to change,” Ridker said. “We must move beyond discussions of 5 or 10 year risk."

The 27,939 participants in the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study had blood tests between 1992 and 1995 for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”), which are already a part of routine care.

They also had tests for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) - a marker of blood vessel inflammation - and lipoprotein(a), a genetically determined type of fat.

Compared to risks in women with the lowest levels of each marker, risks for major cardiovascular events like heart attacks or strokes over the next 30 years were 36% higher in women with the highest levels of LDL-C, 70% higher in women with the highest levels of hsCRP, and 33% higher in those with the highest levels of lipoprotein(a).

Women in whom all three markers were in the highest range were 2.6 times more likely to have a major cardiovascular event and 3.7 times more likely to have a stroke over the next three decades, according to a report of the study in The New England Journal of Medicine published to coincide with the presentation at the meeting.

“The three biomarkers are fully independent of each other and tell us about different biologic issues each individual woman faces,” Ridker said.

“The therapies we might use in response to an elevation in each biomarker are markedly different, and physicians can now specifically target the individual person’s biologic problem.”

While drugs that lower LDL-C and hsCRP are widely available - including statins and certain pills for high blood pressure and heart failure - drugs that reduce lipoprotein(a) levels are still in development by companies, including Novartis , Amgen , Eli Lilly and London-based Silence Therapeutics.

In some cases, lifestyle changes such as exercising and quitting smoking can be helpful.

Most of the women in the study were white Americans, but the findings would likely “have even greater impact among Black and Hispanic women for whom there is even a higher prevalence of undetected and untreated inflammation,” Ridker said.

“This is a global problem,” he added. “We need universal screening for hsCRP ... and for lipoprotein(a), just as we already have universal screening for cholesterol.”

Quiet Revolution? UK Sees New Breed of 'Green' Narrowboats