Saturday 28 January 2012

A last word on punts

This delightful little cupola is on the boathouse of Riverside, the house in Wallingford that George Dunlop Leslie had as a country house shortly after he had written Our River. It was later split into three, my grandparents owning the central part but not, to my regret, the boathouse which was 'next door' to us.
Today, most punts are hire boats for the hordes of tourists in Oxford and Cambridge, but I think the classic punt would make perhaps the perfect canal boat.
Rowing is difficult and tedious on canals because they are narrow and winding, so the sculler must look behind almost continually and the spread of the oars makes navigation difficult when a narrowboat approaches.
A punter, on the other hand, looks forward and the boat is so narrow it can squeak past any barge. The water is not deep, there are no unexpected holes in the bottom, and a speed close to the speed limit of 4mph can be maintained with little effort. The huge internal space makes camping a pleasure.
The only possible drawback is that the bottom of every canal was sealed by a process called 'puddling', lining the bottom with mud. Does that make punting difficult? There was a punt hire business on the Regent's Canal in east London but it didn't last long - was this because there is no market for punting in the land of the Cockney or was it because punters were getting their poles stuck in the mud all the time? Please let me know, otherwise I might be building a punt for canal cruising soon. Paul Fisher does some nice plans....

5 comments:

Bursledon Blogger said...

Gor blimey Gov'nor, we're finkin' of makin' a new punt so's the Pearly Queen of Regents Park can get abart for the Jubilee.

priyariya said...

Hi I saw a punt in Primrose Hill on Regents canal today, does anyone here know anything about it? Would like to hire it this week if possible!

priyariya said...

Hi have you made this proposed punt as yet? I saw one today on Regents canal and would like to hire it. Thanks

Chris Partridge said...

No progress on the punt front yet. Hope you manage to get in touch with the punt hire people on the Regents Canal - let us know how you get on!

Tim P Anderson said...

nice punting page, i'd like to send an image of my punt which is based on a Louisiana Rice Harvest Bateaux. Tim P. Anderson