April 2003 - Final Work

Throughout March and April I did all sthe small bits and bobs of work on the punt. For example, I fitted a block to the back of the punt, to allow the outboard motor to be bolted to it:

I've also drilled holes and canabalized one of my tents to create the hoops that the punt tent will be fitted over. I haven't started work on the tent yet - I'm probably going to save that for the summer.

Here you can see the new paint scheme I've added to the punt - I used my remaining blue paint to colour in the outwales, and to part-cover the deck. It looks very jaunty now, in my opinion. You can also see the duck-boards I made to ensure heavily placed feet don't go straight through the bottom of the punt (after all, it's only 6mm of plywood thick!).

Continuing with the painting theme - here's a picture of the quant painted black and blue, and also the paddle.

Furthermore, I've registered the punt. This was rather frustrating, and requires some explanation:

Most of the waterways and canals in Britain are run by the British Waterways. But the Cam (from Grantchester to just before Ely) has to be different - it is maintained and run by the Conservators of the River Cam. So whereas you can buy a license for all the other rivers in one go, if you just want to use your boat on the Cam you're supposed to buy your license from the Cam Conservators. On the price schedule it said that a craft up to 5m in length with an engine no more than 4hp cost 36 pounds to license. "Great," I thought, "that's not much at all." But it turns out that punts cost more - 46 pounds for a normal punt, and 99 pounds for a punt wider than one meter. My punt is 1.20m wide. And then, if you want to fit an auxillary engine of less than 4hp, it's another 26 pounds! I argued with them for a bit, but they wouldn't budge (and their clerks are a lawyers firm, so I don't stand a chance of beating them in court), so I coughed up 99 pounds.

What did this get me? My registration number, which I have stencilled on the side of the punt. I've also stencilled on the punt's name:

What else did I do this month? Well, I made a back rest for any passengers that might use the punt. It's removable, so that when I finally get a tent made for the punt I can take it out and sleep in the punt. Here it is:

I didn't make the rest from any plans - I just sort of guessed and measured accordingly. It worked out surprisingly well given the inaccurate method used to make it. Here's a picture of the bolt and wingnut mechanism that allows me to remove it. You can also see one of the drilled holes for the tent poles. There are six holes in all, allowing three hoops to pass over the top of the punt, as illustrated before.

Well, that's pretty much it. Hope to see you at the launch!