7 minute read
taking a Punt
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
My 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 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.
David testing Poppy in Stourport Basin in October 2019.
The punt was designed in sections for storage and transport.
Cruising the canal at Perdiswell.
Project Poppy
I started building Poppy, my 3ft by 20ft punt, in 2012. It was an on-again, off-again sort of project, fitted around other things and it wasn’t until 2019 that I could carry out the first test launch in Stourport Basin – and then the pandemic struck. I’d previously successfully built and used a coracle, but I’m a metalworker by trade, not a woodworker or boat-builder, so I used what skills I already had and learned a lot as I went along. While the coracle had been built by eye (no measurements, just my hands and string), I used an engineering approach to the punt with everything drawn and specified to my own design.
I built Poppy in the garage at home, so because of space I decided to construct three sections joined with bulkheads, and each would float if the screw holes were bunged up. Now that it’s finished, I can see that it’s far too heavy, not quite wide enough and very slightly crooked. I added a picture of a poppy on each of the four corners but it needs a few more details adding to really finish it off. It has been thoroughly tested with the outboard motor, but I’m yet to try poling it.
A powered punt?
My involvement with IWA’s Sustainable Boating Group has meant that I always kept the idea of an electric drive punt in mind. I already had an electric outboard from various experiments with dinghies (as a tender or tow-craft and for exploring rivers quietly), and it became an obvious addition to Poppy, especially when I found out we were doing presentations about sustainable boating at the IWA Festival of Water.
The word punt as a noun describes the shape of the boat’s hull, characterised by its flat bottom which slopes upwards at the bow and usually the stern as well, making it double-ended or reversible. As a verb, to punt means ‘to pole’, i.e. to push against the river bottom, which is easily done on gravel reaches such as on the Thames, Cherwell or Cam. On the Severn, most of the old ferries had a punt-like hull but were roped or chained across the river, or simply rowed. Fitting an electric motor to a punt does not, therefore, make it any less of a punt. One could do the same to a canoe and it would still be a canoe.
The punt hull shape has some interesting uses on larger craft. World War II landing craft were designed this way, at least at one end, so that a gangway can be lowered quickly over the bow to unload vehicles and lots of personnel onto a beach. In addition, many of the early ferries on the Thames and other rivers were the forerunners of the ‘leisure punts’ seen now at Oxford and Cambridge.
L ey son smed ALI
Festival launch
I planned to launch Poppy at the IWA Festival of Water in August, and by the time it had been assembled on the Saturday morning, word had got round about the solar-powered punt. My earlier idea for a canopy made of solar panels had not been manifested, so I charged the batteries (I had two so that one could be charging while the other was in use) from a large solar panel at the festival campsite.
I was really pleased to have been able to take several people on cruises through the festival site. Among the first were IWA National Chair Paul Rodgers, his wife Amanda, IWA Chief Executive Phil Hornsey and myself with Peter Fisher steering. Other passengers included family and friends as well as Dr Andrew Hardie, Ivor Caplan, Dave Pearson and Tim Lewis, so I think a good number of people saw Poppy in action, which was the point of the exercise. I was pleasantly surprised by the many complimentary comments, and even when it was moored up it somehow looked okay among the narrowboats visiting the festival.
ey son smed L ALI David fitted new seats and an electric outboard for this year’s launch at the Festival of Water.
Paddles up for the test run at Stourport Basin.
David welcomed guests aboard for short trips at the Festival of Water.
PLEASURE PUNTING
A brief history of the punt and its rise in populari
Punt boats are square-ended cra with fl at bo oms and no keels, traditionally propelled using a pole. They are thought to have been developed during the medieval period for use on shallow waters and there is a long history of punts being used on the Thames, as well as the Cambridge Fens for eel fi shing, hunting and transporting goods. Larger punts also operated as ferries, and others sported sails for venturing out into estuaries and deeper waters.
The Victorians brought punting to the masses, developing it as a leisure activi that hasn’t appeared to have waned in populari since. Punting for pleasure is thought to have initially taken o on the Thames in the 1860s when day trippers travelling by train visited the river, before spreading to Oxford and Cambridge where it peaked in the early 1900s.
Over time the two universi cities developed their own punting techniques. Those based in Cambridge stand on top of the till (or deck) and propel the cra bow fi rst, whereas those in Oxford stand inside the boat (rather than on top of the till or box) and punt stern fi rst. The Granta Rats, an undergraduate club at the Universi of Cambridge, was formed in 2010 as the successor of the Damper Club, which ran om the late 19th century to around 1990 for “all those who have unwillingly entered the Cam fully clothed”, and was once led by Graham Chapman of Mon Python fame in 1961-62.
Punt racing came onto the scene in the 1880s. Professional watermen and amateurs raced punts om the early 19th century but the Thames Punting Club formalised the sport in 1885 and still operates as the governing body today. The boats used in competition are much narrower, sometimes as li le as 15in wide, and over 30 long. Races usually take place on an 800m straight stretch of river.
Today, punting is still a popular tourist activi for visitors to the rivers Cherwell and Isis in Oxford and the Cam in Cambridge, as well as the River Avon in Stratford-upon-Avon, the River Stour in Canterbury, and the River Thames at Sunbury.
“Learn swimming before punting,” H.M. Winstanley, Punting
