HOW TO PUNT
This is for those who are concerned simply to punt for pleasure (rather than learning a racing technique). There are people who will dogmatically tell you that they know an exact method. That may well be the case for racing. But for pleasure punting the fact is - it doesn't matter how you do it as along as it is reasonably efficient and does not soak you or your passengers. And if it can also have that certain elegance that the best punters show then why not? I have developed the method outlined here over some forty two years (250 miles last year) so it undeniably works.
A punt is the countryman's boat. It can be seen on African Lakes and in Far Eastern river markets. Its basic characteristic is a flat bottom, which is what makes it very stable in flat water (and very unstable in choppy water - but that is unlikely to be your problem) It is basically a box afloat. On the Thames it has been used for cargo carrying since time immemorial (and probably slightly before that.) In one of its forms it became the fishing punt with a central flooded well with holes in the bottom so that live fish could be kept. The Victorians developed this into the elegant pleasure craft that is the Thames Punt. This is traditionally 32 inches to 34 inches wide and between 24 feet and 26 feet long (though shorter punts may be for hire). Racing punts are 2 feet wide down to 14.5 inches and up to 35 feet long. The pole which propels it is 16 feet long as a standard though it may be found from 13 feet to 20 feet. The Thames Punt has a TILL or BOX or DECK at one end (sometimes the other end has a smaller version). The bottom is curved from one end to the other, as are the sides. The ends (HUFFS) are flat (that is not pointed). (Racing punts are defined as flat bottomed boats having the width of the ends not less than half the width in the centre) The sides are joined together by TREADS (cross wise planks on the bottom, placed at intervals). The joint to the side is reinforced at each tread by a KNEE which may extend to the top of the side. The bottom is then made up of lengthwise planks secured to the treads. The area between each tread is often filled with a grating. There are usually two, sometimes one or three, seats. The area between them is the SALOON. The passengers sit on the bottom on MATTRESS(ES) (cushions).
The old cargo and fishing punts were often "RUN". That is they were
propelled by one or more punters walking towards the stern during the SHOVE and
then returning towards the bows before the next stroke.
This was however not suited to the new use of the punt as a pleasure boat. So a
method of propulsion from a fixed point at the stern was developed. This was
known as "PRICKING". I wonder how many browsers will not allow this
site to be seen? Gentlemen with imagination will realise that punting is all an
extended metaphor anyway - but there we are.
Punts are to be found for hire in regrettably few places. No visit to Oxford or Cambridge is complete without a little punting.
In Cambridge they are the way to see the backs (the backs of the colleges - but that is their best side!) and then an expedition to the Orchard at Grantchester for a cream tea is a vital part of anyone's life. (It snowed in May last time I tried it) . In Cambridge you can cheat by using a chauffeured punt - but you will miss half the fun!
In Oxford there are three hire places, at Folly Bridge on
the Thames (Isis), at Magdalen Bridge on the Cherwell, and at the Cherwell Boat
House, Bardwell Road on the Upper Cherwell. The boat rollers on the Cherwell
are very useable and fun. (But Parsons'
Pleasure has gone! No longer will you have to try not to look at nude dons as
they try to engage you in intelligent conversation!) The boat rollers at Iffley are locked, and the stretch below the
lock is the worst on the river for punting. Watch out for racing rowing craft
on the Thames - see below.
At Stratford on Avon there are punts (I think).
And there is perhaps just one old punt still for hire in Henley. There may be perhaps a dozen punts to be seen at the Royal Henley Regatta - though these are private and not for hire. It is a great way to see the regatta. You are actually within feet (sometimes inches!) of the racing, safely moored alongside a boom. Recently a fleet of chauffeured Cambridge punts have been brought to the regatta – expect to pay not just for the time on the river – but also for the transport from Cambridge and back!
Other than that there are several Punting (and Skiff) Clubs and the regattas they organise on the lower Thames. I have seen the regattas at Wargrave and Hurley. Altogether what a come down from the days when they were the most frequent craft to be seen on the Thames!
Because a punt is the most elegant and peaceful means of
water transport known to man. It glides where other boats splash and make rude
noises. It gives you an intimate experience of the river, which is denied to
larger, faster and noisier boats. It is stable and ideal for small children, a
sort of floating play pen (tether them somehow - then all you will have to do
if you hear a splash is haul them out again!) It is ideal for lovers. It is the
best way to have a conversation. It is the ultimate in luxury on a summer's day
to lie back in a punt and watch the world go by. It is the perfect way to have
a picnic. It is almost the only way to combine capacious transport to the
picnic with the picnic site itself!
Punting, you will have the satisfaction of centuries of history behind you -
unlike these flashy plastic boats that make such a noise and kick up such a
fuss whilst their passengers glance occasionally at the scenery through double
glazed windows! Manually propelling a
boat is not only the most satisfying exercise - it also does you good, and
keeps you fit.
Most people take their first strokes punting in exactly the wrong place! They start from a punt hiring station on a crowded river where they have to extricate the punt from the bank and negotiate the other punts around - whilst passengers and onlookers make helpful comments … Let somebody else do that - if all else fails, sit down and use the paddle to get away from there. Find a quiet stretch with few other boats about. Ideally there should be little current and little or no wind.
Stand on the punt.
In Cambridge stand on the till, the decking at the stern of a punt.
In Oxford stand at the other end from the decking, on the sloping bottom of the punt about four or five feet from the end.
Below Oxford on the Thames stand on the bottom just in front of the decking. There are ongoing arguments about which is best. The Oxford punting expert R.T.Rivington says that in Oxford punts are punted stern first. I think that there are two good reasons for this – the first being that it always has been done that way – and the second being that there was probably a practical reason for it in that Oxford punters had to shoot Medley weir – and that a punt in that situation is much safer decking first. For compatibility I shall refer to the end you stand on as the back and the other end as the front.
Hold the pole trailing in the water on the side which seems most natural to you. (Most punters punt with the pole on the right side of the punt - I learnt with a friend who punted on that side - so I punted on the other side so that we could double punt from the back, one on either side, which is a good way to learn.) Whatever you decide, stick to it, and never punt on the other side. Stand with feet slightly apart, across the centre line of the punt, facing where you are going. Do not be tempted into the beginner's error of facing backwards (even in Oxford!) Many punters, particularly in Oxford, do however face towards the pole side.
In what follows the pole hand is the hand nearest the pole side of the punt and the offside hand is the other. (So if the pole is on the right of the punt your pole hand is your right hand and the offside hand is your left hand.)
Hold the very end of the pole with the offside hand as if it were a sword in a scabbard which you are preparing to draw. The pole hand should hold the pole about 18" from the top. This is the "at ease" position. When all is well with the world and you are lazily admiring the scenery as it drifts by - assume this position. When all has gone disastrously wrong and there are problems - assume this position. It is the safe, do nothing, stable, controlled position. From it you can easily assume the position of last resort. You can sit down! Notice that the offside hand is nearer the top of the pole than the pole hand. This is always the case.
Now test the balance. (You can swim can't you?) The pole is a great help in keeping your balance - hold it gently but firmly. Left and right balance is in your hands - or rather in your feet. Rock the punt and then stop it rocking. Play with the balance a little so that you become confident. You can't do that if you are facing to one side!
If your punt is not actually facing the way you want to go, turn it by moving the pole. Use the pole side hand as a pivot - don't move the pole hand too much! Push or pull the offside hand to move the front of the punt in the required direction. The front will move in the opposite direction to the way you move your offside hand. In other words a punt steers like any other boat with a rudder - the only difference being that the rudder in question is so long that it is not necessary for the punt to be moving at all for its orientation to be controlled by the pole. Do not take the pole out of the water whilst doing this. Ideally don't move from this position until facing exactly the required direction.
Sometimes you may find that the correction required, means that the pole has moved through too great an angle. This will probably be because you are not holding the very end of the pole. It is possible to turn most punts through 180 degrees without taking the pole out of the water. But it is so easy to forget to hold the very end of the pole and then problems arise. The best way to get out of the situation is to take a stroke. You cannot lever the pole out of the water unless you hold it nearer the centre. But if you move to that position then you must remember to let it slide out again so that you are holding the very end before trying to steer again. Otherwise you land up waving it about like an ungainly paddle, to very little effect.
Now you are ready to take the stroke. Draw the sword! That is, with the offside hand, pull the pole as if it were coming out of a scabbard, sliding through your pole hand. When it has gone as far as that movement will take it, grip with your pole hand and throw the pole up into a vertical position, keeping your pole arm straight, letting it slide through your offside hand which remains above the pole hand. The end of pole should actually come out of the water but not above the side of the punt. There are other ways to do this - but this one should always work.
At this moment throw the pole downwards with the pole
hand as if trying to spear a fish on the bottom. Be certain the bottom is down
there and it is unlikely to be further away than the length of your pole. (And
if it is, the pole will bob back upwards and can be nonchalantly caught - at
which point you should remark to your passenger(s) that you are now getting
this pole well trained.)
It is almost impossible to punt by lowering the pole down hand over hand. You
do actually have to throw it down, letting it run through your hands.
If the punt is stationary the pole will need to be thrown slightly backwards, so that when you push there is a component in the direction you wish to go. Pushing vertically down on a vertical pole from a stationary punt will merely waste energy. If you succeed in doing anything you will climb the pole.
Strictly speaking punts are not steered! Or at least only by beginners. If they are propelled by pushing against the
right position on the river bottom they will go in the required direction. This is a counsel of perfection. So if you are not perfect then steer during
the stroke. (Once you are experienced it is normally unnecessary to steer at
any other time) To turn towards the pole side simply pull the pole so that it
presses against the punt during the stroke. To turn to the offside takes a
little bit of thought. During the stroke push towards the pole side with the
upper, offside, hand and pull in towards the punt with the lower, pole hand.
This is the same movement as steering when the pole is at rest. Experiment with
this as soon as you are able. Of course if you have picked the exact position
on the bottom against which to push, the punt will go in the required direction
without any further correction. Only experience will teach you how to find that
position.
Many people will tell you not to worry about steering during the stroke, and
that you can steer between strokes. Well yes you can - but it is rather like
telling a cyclist not to worry about steering whilst pedalling, because you can
always steer whilst you keep your feet still! It is most efficient to apply the
stroke in such a direction that no further effort needs to be put into
steering. Then if you want to punt at speed there need be no pause between
strokes. But unless you have a racing punt you must settle for the fact that
you are in the slowest sort of boat on the river and if you wanted to go fast
you wouldn't be punting in the first place.
EFFICIENCY
During the stroke, as the pole becomes less and less vertical, so the push becomes more and more efficient. It pays therefore to start gently (when much of your effort will simply push the pole down into the mud) and then work harder towards the end of the stroke. The last moments before it comes off the bottom are the best for propelling the punt - so make the most of them. As the stroke ends give the pole a sharp pull.
When the stroke is finished assume the "at ease" position. Do not immediately try to take the pole out of the water. If you have to, steer to correct any error during the stroke. Try to stop the punt turning before you make the next stroke. If you have to steer in the "at ease" position, then remember it is because you failed to steer correctly during the stroke. So think about that as you take the next stroke.
In general remember that if you have to turn to avoid an obstacle, it is easy enough to move the front of the punt to one side of it, but then, if you continue to turn, the back will hit it. So having turned one way you then need to turn the other way. A short time on the Cherwell will soon have you wishing that everyone was aware of this simple truth. Remember the punters' motto: "Every action has an opposite and equal reaction".
When the pole catches in the bottom at the end of the stroke, show it who is in charge! Give it a quick hard twist and yank it out! If you can feel it happening during the stroke be gentle and end the stroke early. If it doesn't come out you have a choice: fight it or let it go. If you choose to fight you will have to stop the punt before you can no longer comfortably reach the pole. If you are standing on the till I recommend letting go of the pole with the offside hand and grabbing the front of the till (only make sure it isn't a small lifting hatch you hold - you will only make that mistake once!) Once the punt has stopped and begins to drift back you will almost always find that the pole releases itself. It was the angle to which it had moved that was trapping it. If you choose not to fight then let go! This is why you have a paddle with you (not for passengers to assist you). Use the paddle immediately. The time you wait before stopping the punt will be doubled before you can get back to the pole. You may well find that the pole releases itself when you let it go, and being still angled towards you pops up and swims gently along to catch you up. But whatever you do don't indulge in the film cliché of the punter stuck up the pole. By all means fall in if you want to get wet - but let go of the pole, because otherwise you will break it - and that is the ultimate punting sin.
In very shallow water you may find that the pole trails on the bottom in the "at ease" position. In which case your pole is too long for the depth - but there isn't much to be done about that, so simply bring enough of the pole out of the water so that the end no longer scrapes along behind you.
In very deep water, when you find no bottom (in the stretch below Iffley in Oxford, on the very sharp meanders below St John's Lock at Lechlade, on parts of the Henley reach, and in several parts below Maidenhead) you will have to manage. Hold the pole centrally and use it like a double bladed canoe paddle, first on one side and then the other. It is a quite adequate means of propulsion and can get you out of difficulties. On the Thames there are perhaps two to three hundred yards where a nineteen foot pole cannot be used (in 126 miles Lechlade to Teddington). Of course you may well have to choose where you punt with some care.
Cambridge poles are of wood, Oxford of aluminium. Each has its merits and demerits:
Keep right! Actually river rules are not quite as simple
as that - unlike roads, the rules only apply when there is a danger of
collision. But in practice, unless there is good reason to do otherwise, keep
to the right hand side of the river. If you keep to the left, the only way to
avoid having to move to the right due to a collision risk, is to keep so close
to the bank that no one can get any nearer to the bank! The traditional Thames rule was up the sides
and down the middle – but this has now ceased to be relevant. When there are only punts about there are no
noticeable rules. Punts are not exempt and ought to keep right when there is
danger of collision - but no other punters appear to know this, so do not rely
on it - stick to the ultimate rule - Avoid collisions! A head on collision
between two punts moving at three miles an hour is quite sufficient to cause
serious injury when you consider that a punt with passengers may weigh anything
up to half a ton.
When you change direction to avoid another boat, do it deliberately, and make a
significant course change, so that the other boat can see it and realise what
you are doing. Ideally, from a head to head position, turn right and then left,
so as to pass on a parallel course. If you are going to collide try to make it
so that the side of your punt hits the side of the other punt (that is so that
they are parallel - which implies they may be moving sideways at this point).
When there are racing rowing craft about they may well be
moving up to ten times faster than you, and they are difficult to manoeuvre and
an eight is effectively 60 feet long by 20 feet wide, with fragile blade tips.
Keep out of the way and that means keep well in to the bank. Keep a look out
behind you!
Give way to racing craft, and to sailing craft who may have to tack across the
river in front of you and then turn suddenly and have another go at you!
Wash almost always looks worse than it is. In punting the entire length of the Thames recently I took perhaps a pint of water altogether due to wash. But I was worried perhaps four or five times. Turn so as to take wash almost at right angles.
Remember Absalom! (Killed riding through a forest when he was caught in a tree. Holy Bible, 2 Samuel 18.9)
Thorn bushes are the worst, they will scratch you all
over whilst your passengers have avoided them by lying down and are now
helpless with mirth at your fate. If you are approaching an obstacle overhead
(bridge or branch) and take a stroke such that the top of the pole catches on
the obstacle whilst the bottom is secured in mud you will have no option but to
let go or break the pole.
On the backs at Cambridge beware of raising the pole too soon as you come out
from under a bridge. There are people who stand about on bridges just waiting
to give the top of your pole a sudden tug when you are not expecting it, making
you loose your balance and causing them much amusement as you fall in. Bless
them!
SOME MORE ADVANCED TECHNIQUES:
LEAVING A BANK
You can't just punt away from a bank. In order to do so the bows have to turn out which means the stern must swing in - but the bank is in the way! The simplest thing to do is what motor launches do. They put on full rudder towards the bank and go gently ahead so that the bows go in towards the bank and the stern swings out. They then reverse out and then go ahead. The punting version is to swing the pole so that the stern comes out away from the bank (The bows remaining against the bank - try to restrain passengers from mistakenly "helping" by pushing the bows off at this point!). Once the stern is well out then swing the pole the other way and the bows come out leaving the punt parallel to the bank and several feet away from it.
A punt can generally be turned through 180 degrees in one movement of the pole. Remember to extract the pole from wherever it ends up without attempting to move it in the water. However there is a more genteel method when the punt is stationary. Start a stroke dropping the pole slightly back and to the side and then, instead of pushing, start swinging the bows and holding the stern keeping the pole on the bottom. The punt slowly turns through 180 degrees without very much further movement from you though you will be working fairly hard. The particular advantage of this is that on completion of the turn the movement can be converted into an ordinary stroke.
If there is any stream always aim to have the bows upstream. This is general boating practice. But punts have no brakes and a somewhat erratic reverse gear! So how do you stop? Approach the bank at right angles! It looks alarming and spectators are drawn irresistably to the prospect of a punter committing navigational suicide. When the bows are about to run aground swing sharply upstream, controlling the swing so as to remain just a few inches off the bank. When the stern reaches the bank the punt will be stationary and where you want it. So to accomplish this do not angle in towards the bank, remain well out in the river until level with where you wish to moor. Only then turn the punt through 90 degrees and aim for where you wish to moor. The judgement as to when to turn upstream is a little sensitive given that an error of a few inches will make people think you are stupid as they help you from your upside down position on top of your passengers! But once you have it right it is a highly satisfying method.
There are two things you can do when about to hit
something (well three if you count throwing the pole away and lying down with
your hands over your eyes). You can swing through 90 degrees so that your speed
in the direction of travel will be reduced to perhaps a tenth of what it was
(sideways). This is sometimes appropriate, but unless the oncoming boat does
the same you are still vulnerable to being hit on the side (which is less
strong than the ends). Your stern will have swung towards the problem whilst
the bows swing away.
The other is to take a reverse stroke by throwing the pole forward so that it
touches the bottom at least several feet in front of you and then shoving so
that the punt comes to a halt. In shallow water a heavily loaded punt can be
completely stopped like this. But it is dependant on the water depth and in deep
water this would not work (because the pole could not be angled sufficiently
forwards). Continuing the reverse stroke will of course move you backwards -
but unless you counter it the stern will move sharply away from the pole, and
the bows towards the pole side. Perhaps you should practice punting backwards?
BOATING JARGON: SIDES
There is a useful rule to remember the jargon:
"The shortest words stick together!"
LEFT = PORT = RED:
RIGHT = STARBOARD = GREEN
So when approaching an oncoming boat pass RED to RED (i.e. keep right)
* Unfortunately oarsmen face backwards and no doubt this has caused the rule to fail!
BOW = LEFT STROKE = RIGHT (but only when facing backwards!)
^
^ BOW
2 ^
^ 3
4 ^
^ 5
6 ^
^ 7
STROKE ^
COX
^
^
And of course sometimes they even rig the boats the other
way round just to confuse matters.
As a
cox I could never decide whether, if stroke was on bow side and bow on stroke
side, stroke side should be referred to as bow side and bow side as stroke
side, or not … I think philosophers
will identify this as a case of universals versus nominals … everybody else
will call for the men in white coats.