Looking at…looking down on… and looking out from… Norfolk Punts
When I talk to visitors about Norfolk Punts, I wait to see if there is a glazed look in their eyes as my narrative continues. Occasionally the person says, ”Oh I know what you mean, I remember punts at Cambridge.”
“No”, I say not the same thing. “Norfolk Punts are two person racing yachts – and they are fast – very fast.”
I suspect that while these boats are very familiar to someone who lives in East Anglia, once out of county, the phrase A Norfolk Punt may not be at all familiar. When pressed some people may have read about wildfowling punts, but the idea of a punt as a racing yacht will probably be quite a new phenomenon for them,
There is a good deal of self-interest in this week’s blog. I do have a photograph in my study of two Norfolk Punts with very colourful spinnakers hoisted, but I hate taking it off the wall in order to facilitate someone’s interest, mainly because the framed picture is so difficult to get back on the hook on the wall again and I always live in fear that I am going to drop it and break the glass. Pointing to the blog on my phone will be so much easier.
So this week I will present some photographs which I took at the Punt Championships on Barton Broad last Saturday and Sunday.
The first pictures are pictures from afar! One lesson I learnt many years ago is that you don’t get too close to a punt when it is under say. If they need to change course (called gibing or going about) the chances of getting out of their way can be fairly slim. I always try to cross behind a punt – never in front – definitely not wise.
Pictures from above are taken with my drone. It is such a different view of boats in the water. It is also interesting to note how all the punts seem to take the same line when approaching a mark which they are trying to get round.
Pictures looking out from the Punt.
A Norfolk Punt is a boat that can be sailed by two people. Could one put a photographer on board? “NO!” A third person in a punt who wanted to be in a different position from the person helming and the crew would almost certainly capsize the boat.
The pictures from inside the punt are taken remotely by a GoPro camera suspended from the boom. As long as it is pointing in the general direction of where the crew are…happy days.
On that jolly note I will leave you for this week. This week I have presented a variety of pictures about a relatively small boat – maybe soon we shall look at some bigger ones.
