TAKING
A PUNT
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| IWA Waterways
016 punting AH SS DS.indd 16
Cherwell and watching others come to grief, but not me. On one occasion, upon reaching the naturist club (it’s not there anymore), my friend Brian Cox was pushed off the stern by an unfortunately angled tree. As I was in the second of the two punts we’d hired, it was my crew who rescued him, to much hilarity. When I moved to Worcestershire in 2005, I took to canoeing the Severn (and other rivers) and was also involved with the now-defunct Severn Navigation Restoration Trust. I was keen to see if a larger vessel could navigate down from Shrewsbury or above but nothing much bigger than a canoe has made it for many years. A punt could be the answer but I haven’t done any long journeys in mine yet as lockdown put a damper on things. I still intend on arranging an expedition to do this.
The punt was designed in sections for storage and transport.
Tim Lewis
M
y first forays into punting in the 1960s were brief. I joined the Molesey Skiff & Punt Club (which was actually at Thames Ditton, if I remember correctly), where I was taught to use a 2ft-wide ‘training punt’ on Sunday mornings, from which I’m pleased to say I didn’t fall out. I was, however, very wobbly for a beginner, rather like my first attempts at paddleboarding more recently. The racing punts were only 1ft-wide and one needed to keep up a fair speed to stay upright, but I didn’t progress to races as I moved away from the area. Later, the 3ft-wide punts for hire at Oxford seemed easy to master, and I enjoyed punting socially on my numerous visits there on the River
Tim Lewis
David testing Poppy in Stourport Basin in October 2019.
Alison smedley
Self-built, solar-powered punt, Poppy, was launched at this year’s IWA Festival of Water. Owner David Struckett reveals the inspiration behind the craft and its reception at the show
Into the canal at Perdiswell for the Festival of Water.
Winter 2021 19/10/2021 11:28
