Men (and women) afloat in sheds

Possibly this week the blog has some different readers – so welcome to members of the Norfolk Punt Club who may be viewing this blog for the first time.

However regulars to this page will need to know some background to this week’s topic.  The Norfolk Punt Club has as its summer headquarters a number of connected pontoons moored ’tethered” in the middle of Barton Broad. A bit unusual- many clubs have posh club houses with a variety of amenities, but the Punt Club is different.  The Punt Club pontoons can be quite a cosy number. Sailing races can be run from bits of them, there is an overseer’s position (officer’s box) a covered area, a tea hut and toilet facilities.

That is all that is really needed, even so they do look a bit like floating sheds when you tow them away.

Unfortunately all these pontoons have to be brought back to the land at the end of the season for safety reasons and so that maintenance can be carried out.

Motor boats are used to tow the rafts back to shore. Sometimes when the wind is blowing this can be a tricky job. Last Saturday we were lucky – very little wind. Even so the task has to be done slowly and carefully. Getting the rafts into exactly the right place takes time, patience and skill.

  

The mooring of the pontoons is usually accompanied by the consumption of much cake and the drinking of gallons of tea. (Not for nothing is NPC sometimes regarded as the Norfolk Picnic Club).

Even so – job well done – no tempers lost and no one went for a plunge into the water.

Have a good weekend – see you next week.