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Dylan sails his Duck Punt for the first time – and loves it

Keep Turning Left sailor and film-maker Dylan Winter has launched and successfully sailed his new Duck Punt for the first time.

He’s absolutely delighted with the little sailing canoe, which slips along as nicely as those made by earlier Duck Punters on the Essex coast. And there is the added bonus that he seems to be able to sail and film at the same time without falling in – which I’m pretty sure is what would happen to me if I tried the same trick.

Here on the upper floors of Intheboatshed.net Towers, we’re cheering for several reasons.

It’s always great when someone successfully builds a little boat and enjoys it on the water, and the news seems even better when the builder is in the UK. Round here, amateur boatbuilding projects are nothing like so frequent as they should be, given how much water we have to play with.

I’m pleased, too, that the little Duck Punt shows clearly how effective narrow, flat-bottomed boats can be. The British tend to believe all boats must be round bottomed to be any good, and that therefore building a boat is just too complicated to be worth considering. Dylan’s little punt gives the lie to that myth, just as did all the other duck punts that came before it.

Still more than all this, the project is a tremendous example of cheap and simple sailing.

Here’s Dylan’s page linking to his Duck Punt film; links to John Milgate’s original plans are also available on his website.

PS – Fans of Dylan’s adventures should bag a copy of the latest issue of PBO magazine, which includes an excellent feature-length article by the man himself.

Stirling and Son at the London Boat Show

The Stirling and Son folks are inviting readers to see them at the Tullet Prebon London Boat Show, where Stirlings will be on the Classic Boat stand (G120).

Will is planning to build one of his 9ft clinker built dinghies during the show, and visitors will also have a chance to have a close-up look at the new 14ft Stirling & Son sailing dinghy with its rig up. Will offers plans for many of his designs.

I’m sure Will is also aiming to talk to as many people as possible about Integrity, the glorious Victorian-style gentleman’s racing cutter that’s currently in build at Stirlings…

Dylan Winter gets to work on his Duck Punt

Dylan Winter builds John Milgate's Duck Punt

Click on the image to see Dylan’s video

I do like to see a man working. This is Keep Turning Left small boat sailor and film maker Dylan Winter building one of John Milgate’s Duck Punts

These little boats are derived from small traditional boats originally used for wildfowling, but are now raced and cruised by a bunch of enthusiasts on the East Coast.

The film shows how progress Dylan managed in a single weekend – and didn’t he do well? Very well indeed, I think, given that he had to make a frame first.

I hadn’t realised quite how far and fast enthusiasm for the Duck Punt design had spread when I posted about them more than a week ago. But this week I was tickled to learn that Wooden Boat forumite and regular boat plan tinkerer and computer modeller Flo-Mo has worked out a way of constructing one of these craft from two sheets of ply, and having made a paper model is about to make a birch-ply model prototype.

It’s fascinating to see people on the serious ‘proper’ wood-built boat forum getting interested in little plywood boxes like these; they’ve doubtless been helped along by the great photos and videos of these boats that can be found around the Internet.

Regular intheboatshed.net reader and contributor Brian Pearson is particularly interested in this development, and says the Duck Punt sailors are happy for folks to publish simplicated versions of the standard Duck Punt plans.

However, I’m still considering the question. In my mind there’s no doubt Flo-Mo’s clever cross-wise bottom panel layout will work, but my thinking is that given that ply is stiffer one way than the other and ply joints require materials and take time, I’m inclined to think I’d prefer to construct a bottom with length-ways running outer plies, and only one butt joint.

I also wonder how much the weight of the materials involved in John Milgate’s construction method as shown in Dylan’s video contributes to making these little boats practical sailors – only those experienced with these little craft would know, but I wonder whether a very lightly made all-1/4in ply stitch and glue Duck Punt might not be a little light and tiddly? Weight-wise it could be that the best approach to a frameless stitch and glue build for one of these boats might be to laminate a doubled bottom, or it might be that the whole thing is fine made from 3/8ths inch ply.

And then there’s the little matter of built-in buoyancy. I doubt the Duck Punt community will see eye-to-eye with me on this, but I really think some built-in flotation is essential – it could so easily save a lone sailor’s life one day, and then we’ll all be grateful.

This darn thing has got me going now. I must try to restrain myself.

PS – See the comments below for a link to more on Flo-Mo’s progress with this project.

Duck punt paper model

Paper model Duck Punt made from Flo-Mo’s ply layout