Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys

by Joseph H. Adams

Punt and Scow

A punt with a flat bottom is about the easiest and safest boat for a boy to make and own, for it is straight in construction and difficult to upset if not overloaded. As both ends are the same it can be rowed or poled forward or backward, and the overhanging ends allow plenty of seating room.

The punt shown in Fig. 4 is fifteen feet long, nineteen inches deep, and four feet wide. The ends cut under twenty inches, and at one end a skag and rudder can be arranged as shown in Fig. 2.

The sides are made of two boards, one of six and the other of a twelve-inch width, and the added thickness of the bottom boards make the total depth of the sides nineteen inches. The wider boards are the lower ones, and they are fastened together near both ends and at the middle with battens as shown in Fig. 4. The middle battens are six inches wide, and into the upper ends of them the row-lock pins are driven. The bottom planking should not be more than four or five inches wide, and it is securely nailed to the edges of the sides and to an inner keel-strip running the entire length of the bottom as shown in Fig. 3.

PUNT AND SCOW

The wood should be very dry so that it will not shrink afterwards and open the seams. Along the edges, and before the planking is laid or nailed on, smear white-lead, and lay one or two thicknesses of lamp-wicking on the lead, so that when the ends of the planking are driven down it makes a water-tight joint. Where the planks butt up against the other planking, the joints are to be generously smeared with white-lead and laid with a string of the lamp-wicking. Begin at one end and work towards the other, having first attached the end planks. Fig. 3 A.

The method of attaching the skag is also shown in Fig. 3, and if the punt shows a tendency to swing around in the water and not mind the oars or rudder, a keel three inches wide may be attached on the bottom of the punt to run from the forward end of the straight bottom back to the end of the skag.

The bottom planking is to be attached at both sides and to the inner keel-strip with galvanized nails. Do not use ordinary nails as they will rust in a short time, and the only ones that are of use are the regular galvanized boat nails that can be had at most hardware stores, and always at a ship-chandler’s or from a boat-builder.

A rudder can be made and hung at one end of the boat as shown in Fig. 2.