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Punt in boatbuilder’s workshop, photo from the
Wikimedia Commons, taken by Thruston
I really can’t add anything to this excellent Wikipedia entry on the punt – one day all its entries will be like this.
Do you know there are still people out there, particularly in publishing, who think the Wikipedia is useless? I once had a rancourous argument with a senior director for a magazine and events company when I dared to suggest that the model was a good and useful one. No doubt sour grapes can grow almost anywhere…
The names of a punt’s component parts, image from the
Wikimedia, drawn by Thruston
See also:
•Henry Taunt’s 19th Century photos of the Thames
•Free online boatbuilding plans for a racing punt
I wonder if anyone else has experienced that magical evening in Oxford at the end of the Magdalen College School summer term when the choir perform 'Madrigals on the River"? Each year, the choir, dressed in striped jackets and straw boaters and seated in punts, entertain their audience from the river with a selection of delightful unaccompanied songs. They finish the programme by gliding slowly out of sight and the final bars of the last tune linger for a few minutes more as the evening light fades. Unforgettable.
Julie: agreed..it's magical, and one of those moments when, as one of the lucky listeners, you look around and feel "I need to pinch myself to check that I'm not dreaming". Pure theatre! (and wonderful when a punt hired by tourists from Japan, Italy, or wherever drifts through and you wonder what on earth they make of this….in Oxford, do they dress up in striped balzers, sit in punts and sing on every day of the year?)