Not sure how to break it to all those who value my ethical stance on plywood vs sustainable timber, and lovers of wildfowl, but I have been asked (nothing confirmed yet) to build a gun punt, possibly in plywood.
You will know that a gun punt (sneak box in the USA) is basically a low-slung heavy canoe, designed to be paddled unobtrusively towards unsuspecting ducks, at which point the lanyard is pulled on an enormous cannon mounted on the bow.
It's an ancient sport and tightly regulated. It also requires great skill, patience and fortitude, crouched in a punt in the dark hours before dawn with only a thermos and a cheese sandwich to stave off the bitter cold of an East Anglian winter morning.
Just can'tsee how I can get the bottom out of larch, so Bruynzeel it will have to be, and probably the better for it, but I fully intend to plank the sides in larch, fastened with bronze screws or maybe riveted.
More on this anon, but the problem at the moment is finding plans for such a craft. My prospective client has plans for an 18ft version, which could be scaled up to the required 23ft, but having googled for hours, and digested much useful information, anything first hand would be welcome.
AT17
The blog will now be devoted not to boat building but to my 82-year-old Vertue, Sally II, now undergoing a well needed refit at Johnson & Loftus in Ullapool (and gliding...)
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