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Gunning punt build


Doriboy
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I have been interested in punt gunning for sometime and have read all of the usual books on the subject, I have spent many nights trawling the internet seeking 'punt porn' and well and truly got on the t*ts of all the puntgunners I know.

Last summer a Facebook friend of mine told me one of his friends on the south coast, who had a small single punt for sale that needed re-decking, of course I didn't need asking twice.

So on the 1st September (yes really) rather than being sat in the mud waiting for sunrise I was in the land rover with a massive drive ahead of me but full of enthusiasm.

Many hours later I was greeted by a very friendly and welcoming bloke with loads of experience, bags of knowledge, and a collection of hardware that made my eyes bulge.

The punt was exactly as I'd imagined - ****ed.

Not only was the deck completely missing but it seemed everything under the fibreglass skin was rotten too.. I hadn't come all this way to leave empty handed. My simple re-decking job had just evolved into something much more. Maybe I wasn't thinking straight through lack of sleep and being over excited but I didn't really see this as a problem, rather a chance to learn hands on how to build one of these things.

Once I eventually got home and got the punt in the shed, I started stripping the fibreglass...

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Thanks.

I had hoped to keep the floor and the original frames, but sadly someone else had made an attempt at repairing it in the past and in doing so had butchered the tops of the frames and bent them inwards, also the floor was rotten. Obviously.

Thankfully after a bit of work, the keelson and chine logs were ok.

Then I started making new frames, using the old ones where I could as templates.

 

Starting to mock it up18F3F79D-BCB6-488B-A89A-677EF048C498_zps

 

I won't lie, this was a total pain in the a*se and took forever CF66BAAB-4D14-44FF-A3F4-E7A1F5714D1D_zps

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I had decided to rebuild as close to the original design as possible, just making a few tweeks along the way, and of course using modern materials.

The boat is of a RPG type design with quite tall, slab sides, and a small amount of flare, giving lots of freeboard. She had a fair amount of kamel, but no spring, so the first of my tweeks was to add a bit, so that when she runs aground, she does so at gun beam, making it easier to float her off again.

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The original design didn't have any drainage, so I cut holes beside the keelson to allow water to drain back and be bailed.

After many many beers, and lots of blood and swearing, banging and sawing away in the shed until 2am, with the misses getting more p*ssed off by the second, I got all of the frames to fit. Then started with the gunwales, remembering the all important spring. For this I used 1"x1" as per the original, gluing and screwing everything.

Originally the skin was butted up to the stem and stern blocks, which were simply screwed on each end. This didn't seem great to me so after planing them both back (this also took forever) I decided I would run the skin right over them for added strength.

Once the gunwales were fitted, it was time to cut the cockpit. All remenance of this had been lost due to rot and the previous butchery, so a quick phone call and I had the measurements of someone else's. Anyway, if it looks right, it is.

 

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most interesting. looks like all you got was stuff to makes templates of, all the best with the project, should keep you busy and give a lot of pride when it takes to the water. did it come with a gun.

Yep that's pretty much it, basically a load of rotten old plans! It is incredibly rewarding when it starts coming together. Sadly no, no gun being a small boat I think she happily would take a punt gun of around 6 foot and 1" bore, or a large shoulder gun.

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mate this is seriously amazing stuff,

 

i have built two fibreglass cannoes and a few other very small bits and pieces but to bring this back to life is amazing to see.

 

what every she cost she is worth it of course, just got loads of green eyed monster syndrome now

what did we pay for it at the begining?

do you think it was better to buy rather than to build from scratch brand new?

maybe a form of twisted ply construction as a skin or are you going for some thing else.

 

punt gunt choice.

now heres loads of questions.

are we buying used or buying new or having made new or refurbished

 

costs please????

 

does the size of punt work to any scale to the size of the punt gun

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Great stuff ,It's very addictive isn't it ... just ads more history to the punt , was there much history come with it , if you don't mind me asking ..

No not a great deal, only that it was used on the south coast and think it was used with a 1" bore muzzle loader and as a ferry boat to get to good shoulder gunning spots. It is obviously quite old but I don't have an exact age.

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mate this is seriously amazing stuff,

 

i have built two fibreglass cannoes and a few other very small bits and pieces but to bring this back to life is amazing to see.

 

what every she cost she is worth it of course, just got loads of green eyed monster syndrome now

what did we pay for it at the begining?

do you think it was better to buy rather than to build from scratch brand new?

maybe a form of twisted ply construction as a skin or are you going for some thing else.

 

punt gunt choice.

now heres loads of questions.

are we buying used or buying new or having made new or refurbished

 

costs please????

 

does the size of punt work to any scale to the size of the punt gun

I'll try answer all of those..

Better to buy or build? In the case of money, either build from scratch or buy a usable one.

However it is nice to bring something old back to life.

Skin (and everything else) is ply, then covered in fibreglass.

Considered a few different guns, maybe my 10 bore (double discharge it). I have been offered a new build too, the cheapest new builds are about £2k and escalate from there. A second hand gun would cost £1500+

Basically the bigger the punt, the bigger the gun.

Hope this helps.

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Once I had the cockpit sorted, I flipped it over and removed the rest of the floor. That was the easy bit. I then spent the next two days carefully removing all the old rusted screws and scraping the remains of filler, glue and tiny bits of wood off, to clean up the keelson and chine logs.

 

281A2BB4-5B75-4BF7-8EB2-437A127AA15C_zps

 

Next job was to adjust the angles of the frame sides in order to meet the skin snugly. All of this was done by eye and by hand. It was a complete pig of a job and toke me another three days to complete, the plane constantly grabbing and stopping rather than gliding smoothly. Strangely this was one of the most satisfying jobs so far, I can't quite describe how good it feels when you look from different angle and it just 'fits'

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So your not going to go for the traditional canvas skin , i would try to stay away from fiberglass unless is all fiberglass , you will oly find yourself in the same postion only a few more years down the line..

Hi

Sorry to disagree but I think your mistaken I believe traditionally it was linen on the deck and pitch or tar to stop the joints and seal floor

canvas strip over the inside joints possibly

Although I'm no expert and could well be wrong 😀

 

It's looking great massive amount of work and effort in it

Are you a carpenter by trade if you don't mind me asking

 

All the best

Of

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So your not going to go for the traditional canvas skin , i would try to stay away from fiberglass unless is all fiberglass , you will oly find yourself in the same postion only a few more years down the line..

Depends, a lot of people (including whoever glassed this boat) go for the cheap option of polyester resin. Polyester is useless for wooden boats, it doesn't penetrate or 'wet out' so moisture will get between the glass and wood. Eventually you will find you can pop the glass skin off the boat (which, by then will most likely be rotten, and you will have to start again)

 

Epoxy resin is the way to go. It's generally around five times more expensive but does all the things polyester doesn't. It's also excellent as a filler and a glue. In my opinion West's system is the best you can get.

 

As always, buy cheap, pay twice.

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I may well be wrong OF , i know of 2 of my friends who used canvas when restoring there punts , because they wantedto stay away from fiberglass because of rotting problems ..

Used linen on the one I built 😊

its generally accepted that its to heavy if you use canvas but I wish your freinds the best of luck are they using it all over the punt or just on the deck ?

All the best

Of

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Will you be covering everything under the deck with fibreglass. I used Marine ply frames like you have for the one I built 50 years ago. I coated everything inside with Synthaprufe, but they still rotted. If you are taking it home after every trip out, that might be different.

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Hi

Sorry to disagree but I think your mistaken I believe traditionally it was linen on the deck and pitch or tar to stop the joints and seal floor

canvas strip over the inside joints possibly

Although I'm no expert and could well be wrong 😀

 

It's looking great massive amount of work and effort in it

Are you a carpenter by trade if you don't mind me asking

 

All the best

Of

I watched your build thread and was very impressed. Love how you did a totally traditional build with all the old techniques.

No I'm not a carpenter, I'm a Barber, so I'm used to working by eye, with my hands but that's with scissors and comb rather than saw and plane.

I'm flattered that you like it.

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Will you be covering everything under the deck with fibreglass. I used Marine ply frames like you have for the one I built 50 years ago. I coated everything inside with Synthaprufe, but they still rotted. If you are taking it home after every trip out, that might be different.

Best to wet out everything with the epoxy resin but only the outside surface to have woven strand matting. Yes it will be kept at home, sadly it's just not safe to leave these things lying around

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