Punt (boat)

Punting while dressed for Cambridge graduation

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water.

Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.

Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling, but in modern times their use is almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames.

This article concentrates on the history and development of punts and punting in England, for other usages see the disambiguation pages at punt and punter.

Punt construction

File:Dscn7407-punts 600x800.jpg

Punts on the Cam

A traditional river punt differs from many other types of wooden boat in that it has no keel, stem or sternpost. Instead it is built rather like a ladder with the main structure being two side panels connected by a series of 4 inch (10 cm) cross planks, known as "treads", spaced about 1 foot (30 cm) apart.

The first punts are traditionally associated with the River Thames in England and were built as small cargo boats or platforms for fishermen. Pleasure punts — specifically built for recreation — became popular on the Thames between 1840 and 1860. Some other boats have a similar shape to a traditional punt — for example the Optimist training dinghy or the air boats used in the Everglades — but they are generally built with a box construction instead of the open ladder-like design of a traditional Thames pleasure punt.

Since a punt has no keel, it draws only a few inches even when fully laden; this makes it very manoeuverable and suitable for shallow water. A punt can be punted with equal facility in either direction; this is handy in narrow streams where turning round may be difficult. The square-cut bow gives greater carrying capacity for a given length than a boat of the same beam with a narrow or pointed bow; it also makes the boat very stable, and suitable for passengers.

Punts are still made in England, mainly to supply the tourist trade in Oxford and Cambridge. The construction material of choice is wood. Fibreglass and other synthetic materials have been tried, but the resulting boats are rarely stiff enough to be easy to use. The sides, the ends (known as "huffs"), and the "till" are normally made of hardwood such as mahogany. The treads are often made from oak. The bottom is made of softwood and may be replaced several times during the life of a particular boat.

A traditional punt is about 24 feet long and 3 feet wide (7.5 by 1 m). The sides are about 18 inches (0.5 m) deep. Both the bow and the stern are cut square, with a long shallow "swim"; this is to say that the underside of the boat slopes very gently at the front and the back.

The construction of a Thames pleasure punt

The bottom of the punt is made with long, narrow planks stretching fore and aft, attached to the flat sides and the treads. In order to allow the wood to swell when it gets wet, the planks are set a small distance apart (traditionally the width of an old penny, about 1–2 mm). The gaps are caulked; this caulking normally needs to be renewed annually. The treads are attached to the sides with small wooden "knees", which may be vertical or set at an angle. At the back of the boat, the punt will be strengthened with a box or short deck called a "till" which extends some six feet (2 m) forward from the stern. This box is normally closed in and provides additional torsional rigidity. Note that even though a punt can be punted with equal facility in either direction, the Thames punt-building tradition was that the till was at the stern.

The diagram above shows a punt without seats. The seats are usually just a simple board fitting against blocks on the sides, with cushions. The gaps between the treads are normally fitted with gratings to allow the passengers to keep their feet dry.

A Thames punt adapted as a pedalo

Both smaller and wider punts are made. Extra large and wide punts may be seen in Cambridge, where many are used as water-borne tourist vehicles. Single seater Thames punts were normally made only 2 feet (60 cm) wide, and somewhat shorter than a standard punt; very few of these are still afloat. Racing punts, which are still used by a few specialist clubs on the lower Thames, may be built even narrower. Thames punts have occasionally been adapted for other means of propulsion: including sails, tow-ropes, and paddle wheels. With the addition of iron hoops and canvas awnings, punts have also been used for camping.

Punt poles

A punt pole differs from the Fenland "quant" in that it does not have a cross piece at the top.

Poles for pleasure punts are normally made of spruce, or aluminium. A normal pole is about 12–16 feet (4–5 m) long and weighs about 10 lb (5 kg). In both Oxford and Cambridge long 16 ft poles tend to be used exclusively.

The bottom of the pole is fitted with a metal "shoe", a rounded lump of metal to protect the end — the shoe is sometimes made in the shape of a swallow tail.

Traditional wooden poles are preferred by many experienced punters; they are more sympathetic on the hands and make less noise on contact with the river bottom or the punt compared to an aluminium pole. As of 2005 all wooden poles in England are supplied by Collars of Oxford, and they cost about £120 including a shoe. Aluminium poles are considerably cheaper and stronger, so may be preferred by punt stations offering punts for hire to inexperienced punters, however it is normally possible to choose either type.

Racing poles are generally a great deal lighter than pleasure punt poles, and aluminium is the preferred material. It is usual to carry one or two spare poles in a race, so that one can keep punting if a pole gets stuck or is dropped.

Punting in England

I admit that it is better fun to punt than to be punted, and ... a desire to have all the fun is nine-tenths of the law of chivalry.

— Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night (1935)

The pleasure punts in use in England today were first built around 1860 and reached the peak of their popularity in the 1910s. Their use declined in the 1950s and 1960s in proportion to the increase in motor boat traffic on English rivers, but has increased again as the tourist industry has grown in England.

Punting is a popular leisure activity on the rivers of several well-known tourist destinations: there are commercial organizations that offer punts for hire on the Avon in Bath, the Cam in Cambridge, the Cherwell & Isis in Oxford, at Stratford-on-Avon, and on the lower Thames near Sunbury. A small number of private punts are also registered on these rivers, especially by the colleges in Oxford and Cambridge.

Punting in Cambridge

Traditional Thames pleasure punts were not introduced to Cambridge until about 1902–1904, but they rapidly became the most popular craft on the river, and today there are probably more punts on the Cam than on any other river in England. This is partly because the river is shallow and gravelly (which makes it ideal for punting), but mainly because the Cam goes through the heart of Cambridge town centre and passes close to many very attractive old college buildings.

Crowd on the Cam

However, the popularity of punting beside the old colleges in Cambridge produces significant congestion on this relatively narrow stretch of the river during the peak tourist season, leading to frequent collisions between inexperienced punters. These collisions are mostly harmless, but visitors to the city may prefer the calmer experience offered on the river above the weir at Granta Place.

There are many companies on the Cam operating tours and hiring punts to visitors. As of 2005 these companies included: Scudamore's, Cambridge Chauffeured Punts, Tyrrell's Marine, and Granta Punt Hire. Most of the colleges along the river keep punts for the exclusive use of their students, although at Trinity College the punts are also available for hire to the public.

The tradition in Cambridge is to punt from the till (locally known as the "deck") at the back of the punt. There are some advantages to this: you are less likely to drip on your passengers and it is easier to steer by swinging the pole behind you, but it is not how Thames punts were traditionally propelled. Nor was the till originally designed for standing on; Cambridge-built punts are made with extra strong decks. Photographs of punting on the Backs in 1910 show that the practice was well established by then; according to an old Cambridge boat man, interviewed by R. T. Rivington in the 1970s, the practice was started by women from Girton anxious to show off their ankles.

The Cambridge towpath

Where the River Cam flows through the town in Cambridge, experienced punters keep to the middle of the river where there is a gravel ridge that makes for easier punting. This ridge has a curious history. It is the remains of an old towpath built when the Cam was still used for commercial river traffic. The banks on either side of the river belong to various university colleges; faced with their combined opposition to a conventional towpath on one side or the other, the river tradesmen were forced to build the towpath down the centre of the stream, and to make the tow horses wade along it.

Punting in Oxford

The punt rollers at "Mesopotamia", River Cherwell, Oxford

Except in the immediate vicinity of Magdalen Bridge, punting in Oxford is a surprisingly quiet and rural experience. Most of the punting is done on the River Cherwell, which flows through Oxford's protected green belt of fields and woods for the last few miles before it joins the Thames just south-east of Christ Church Meadow. Unfortunately this tranquility comes at a price, for the Cherwell is both deep and muddy. Cherwell poles are 16 feet long (4.9 m) to allow for the deepest hollows, so they can be hard to handle; and the muddy patches cling tenaciously to the pole's shoe at unexpected moments.

Punting on the Thames below Folly Bridge is often less enjoyable, mainly because of the competition from eights and sculls and motor boats; punts are recommended to keep close in beside the towpath. The best punting to be had in Oxford is on the Isis alongside Port Meadow to the west of the town; this stretch of river is both shallow and gravelly, has attractive scenery, and is well supplied with pubs (such as The Trout Inn, Wolvercote where some of the Inspector Morse dramas were filmed).

The tradition at Oxford is to punt from inside the boat rather than from on top of the till (or "box" as it tends to be called in Oxford) and to propel the punt with the till end facing forwards. Most Oxford punters regard the box as the bow of the boat.

Punting elsewhere in England

In the Roman spa town of Bath, it is possible to punt on the Avon from the town centre. The river however is deep and shared with large motor vessels. The puntable stretch of river runs beside Brunel's Great Western Railway line. It is also possible to punt on the Lancaster Canal from Lancaster.

Punting is possible on most of the Thames above the tidal limit at Teddington; even in places where the river is broad it is often surprisingly shallow, especially at the edges. Commercial punts have been available for hire near Sunbury-on-Thames in recent times, but most Thames punting is now confined to a few Skiff and Punting clubs. There are active clubs at Walton, Thames Ditton, Wraysbury, and Sunbury. These clubs concentrate on racing punts rather than pleasure punting.

Punt racing

Punt racing in England is governed by the Thames Punting Club, which maintains lists of umpires and publishes a handbook containing rules and bye-laws for those organizing punt races on the Thames.

Races are normally held over a distance of up to 880 yards (800 m) along a straight reach of the river, each end of the course being marked by a pair of poles called "ryepecks" which are firmly pushed into the river bed before the race. Races are always one punt against another, one having the inner lane and the other the outer lane. If the outer lane has consistently deeper water, then the length of the outer course may be reduced to make the race more even.

The competitors usually start with their punts' sterns level with the line between the downstream ryepecks, punt to the upstream ryepecks, and then back. The winner is the first to pass the line of the starting ryepecks (or the first one to hit his or her own ryepeck).

The turn at the upstream ryepecks is done by "stopping-up"; that is the competitor passes the ryepeck on the outside, stops his or her punt with the pole just upstream of the ryepeck, turns to face the stern of the boat and punts back in the other direction, passing the ryepeck on the inside.

Handicap races are normally held in standard "2 foot punts", that is punts that are 2 ft (60 cm) wide in the middle and about 18 inches (45 cm) wide at each end. There are no restrictions on width or length for non-handicap races; punts used for these races are called "best boats" or "best-and-best" punts; the name comes from the "best" boat that you can find and the "best" boat that your opponent can. The narrowest of these boats are no more than 15 inches (40 cm) wide. All racing punts generally have a till at both ends, and may have canvas covers to reduce the amount of water splashing into the boat.

As of 2005 summer regattas with punt races are still held at Sunbury, Chertsey, Walton, Wraysbury, Thames Ditton, and Teddington. The annual Thames Punting Championships are held at Maidenhead.

Punting around the world

Punting on the River Avon in Christchurch

Punting is also popular on a few other rivers outside England. These include:

• The Avon in Christchurch, New Zealand using locally-built Thames punts. Punting is generally done from the till.
• The Neckar in Tübingen, Germany, using boats that are similar in design to Thames punts but are larger and deeper, and have a narrower bow and stern. Bench seats for passengers are provided down each side, and the punter stands on a small triangular deck at the stern.
• The Mutha River in Pune, India at the boat club of College of Engineering Pune (COEP) Punting is done as leisure and fun time. There is a great event for Punting organized during yearly regatta. The event is called as Punt-Formation.

Punting technique

Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.

— Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889)

For pleasure punting, the best way to learn is to start out in a boat with a competent punter in order to watch him or her at work. After this there is no substitute for extensive hands-on practice on different stretches of river. For racing punting it is best to join a club, and to work on one's balance. Some punt racers practise by punting in canoes.

The orthodox punting position is to stand in front of the till, towards the back of the boat, and to punt from the side. Left handers stand on the starboard side with the left leg forward; right handers stand on the port side with the right leg forward. The leading foot is placed against one of the knees, and should not move as you punt. The back foot moves backwards and forwards as the punter makes each stroke.

Rather different traditions have grown up in Oxford and Cambridge: in Cambridge they stand on the till and punt with the open end forward, while in Oxford they stand inside the boat and punt with the till forward. The Oxford position is closer to the orthodox except that nearly everyone in Oxford punts left-handed. Since the rivers in both cities are narrow and often crowded, there is little opportunity for punting "at full pressure", so these variations in stance are of little importance, but the traditions are nonetheless often strongly held. Students at Oxford and Cambridge frequently believe that theirs is the only correct style.

The orthodox position may benefit the experienced punter who does have the opportunity of a clear river or who is planning a long day trip.

For beginners

• Use half strokes (with the pole at 45°) to get going.
• Don't push the pole down, just let it drop vertically.
• Don't "climb the pole" as you shove; push down and away in one movement.
• There is no need to use the pole as a rudder except for manoeuvres close to the bank …
• … but don't be ashamed to do so when it's useful.
• Recover the pole by picking it up hand over hand until it is clear of the water …
• … then hold it vertically and let it drop beside you to start a new stroke.
• If the bottom is muddy, don't shove too hard. Should the pole stick in the mud, twisting may free it. In extremis it is better to let go than to fall in. Most hire companies supply each punt with a canoe paddle which can be used to get the punt back to a dropped pole.
• To improve your technique, stand up straight, relax, and don't grip the pole too hard.

For the more experienced

More experienced punters sometimes stand to one side of the punt, so that it tips down slightly on that side. This makes a slight keel under the boat and helps to keep it in a straight line.

In Cambridge, some experienced punters punt one-handed. This technique is only really suitable for the shallow gravelly conditions offered by the Cam and is slower and harder to master than punting with both hands. The technique consists of a normal "bucket" recovery of the pole (where the pole is thrown forward rather than just pulled up), except that this recovery is done with one hand.

Racing punters tend to stand in the middle and punt in either direction: this is (a) because it is traditional, (b) because it is more efficient, and (c) because it facilitates "stopping-up" between each leg of a race. Pleasure punters may like to try punting from the middle, but it is probably advisable to remove the seats and the passengers first.

It is also possible to punt tandem, that is with two punters standing one behind another in the middle of the boat, and generally punting from the same side. Some punt races are organized for pairs punting tandem.

References

• Hardcastle, Peter (1994–2004). "Canals and waterways: The Cam". Retrieved 2005-05-14.

• Rivington, Robert T. (1983). Punting: Its History and Techniques. Oxford: R. T. Rivington. pp. 240pp. ISBN 0950804525 (hardcover), ISBN 0950804517 (softcover). Contents: Punts and Punting; Punting on the Thames 1880--1918; Punting on the Thames from 1918; Dongola racing; Punting at Oxford until 1900; Punting at Oxford from 1900; Punting at Cambridge; Techniques of punting; Safety in punting; Punt racing; Appendices; Index.

• Rivington, Robert T. (1982). Punts and Punting. Oxford: R. T. Rivington. pp. 32pp. ISBN 0950804509. Selected extracts from the larger book, with additional illustrations.

External links

Clubs

• Thames Valley Skiff Club, retrieved August 2005
• Sunbury Regatta, retrieved July 2005
• Wraysbury Skiff and Punting Club, retrieved July 2005
• Dittons Skiff & Punting Club, retrieved July 2005
• Oxford Students Punting Society, retrieved July 2005, dead link December 2005

Punting stations

• Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford, retrieved July 2005
• Scudamore's, Cambridge, retrieved July 2005
• Cambridge Punters, retrieved September 2005

Further information

• A Thames Library, retrieved Sept. 2005
• A detailed non-commercial guide to punting (and other boating) on the Thames, retrieved Sept. 2005
• St John's College guide to punting in Cambridge, retrieved Feb. 2006

Illustrations of punting

• In Christchurch, New Zealand
• In Tübingen, Germany

See also

• Punt gun