RUSKIN would certainly have approved and Ransome too as it was announced that their nautical namesakes would be going green, reports Jennie Dennett.

The Coniston Launch has just unveiled plans to invest more than £75,000 to convert day-tripper boats Ruskin and Ransome into solar-powered vessels. They will be the first such craft to achieve a commercial passenger licence for operation on lakes and lochs in the UK.

The noisy diesel engines currently propelling the two 1920s-built timber launches will be scrapped to make way for an electric motor fuelled by solar panels that will replace the existing awnings.

Carbon emissions should be slashed by some four tonnes per boat per year and riding the launch across Coniston will become a more tranquil experience.

Gordon Hall, a partner in the Coniston Launch, said the conversion was using a high degree of technical innovation. While most components were available off-the-shelf, their combination, especially in a marine environment, had never been achieved before.

"When we set ourselves up 13 years ago, it was on an environmental basis. The idea was the boats would take people who wanted to walk and visit Brantwood and let them leave their cars at the B&B for a day or so. But we realised six or seven years ago we ourselves were not terribly environmentally-friendly because we were running direct-drive diesel engines. This will change that."

Even with the Lake District's famous inclement weather, Mr Hall said the solar panels would generate enough power for one-fifth of the boats' demands. The panels only need daylight and in Britain's latitude that means a good 14 to 15 hours on a summer's day.

When the solar power fades, a diesel generator would kick in, but a more efficient engine would be installed that produced one-third of the carbon particulates that direct-drive diesel engines emitted.

To get the experimental scheme afloat, the Department of Trade and Industry has offered 35 per cent of the £50,000 needed to install the electric motor made by Solomon Technologies of Florida future conversions should cost a lot less.

Meanwhile, the Lake District National Park Authority has given a big sustainability grant supported by cash from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Friends of the Lake District has also chipped-in and, together with the LDNPA, is covering half the £26,000 bill for the solar panels. Coniston Launch is paying the rest.

"Ruskin would most certainly have approved of this scheme," enthused Mr Hall. "He was a leading conservationist of the time and wrote about seeing the blast furnaces of Millom pumping out smoke. Arthur Ransome would have preferred to see silent, quiet boats to diesel launches."

The conversion work is set to start in November and passengers should be able to ride solar-powered on both boats by Easter 2005.