User:Mcapdevila/Punt (barca)

A punt is a flat boat with a broad front, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting means boating in a punt. The punter pushes a pole against the river bed and this gives the punt a way to move.

Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms, for shooting at birds and fishing, but in modern times they are mostly used for pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England, and are raced at summer regattas on the Thames.

Punt poles
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 Oxford and Cambridge 16 ft long poles are sometimes used.

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.

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
 * The Skiff Club, retrieved April 2006
 * Oxford Students Punting Society, retrieved July 2005

Punting stations

 * Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford, retrieved July 2005
 * Scudamore's Punting, Cambridge, retrieved July 2005
 * Cambridge Punters, retrieved September 2005
 * A guide to punting stations (embarcadères) in the Marais Poitevin (Venise Verte)

Further information

 * A Thames Library, retrieved September 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 February 2006

Punting around the world

 * In Christchurch, New Zealand
 * In Tübingen, Germany
 * In the Spreewald in Germany
 * On the Mutha River, India
 * On the Marais Poitevin, France
 * In Botswana

Category:Boats