page_title: Punt (boat)
section_title: Racing
hierarchical_section_title: Punt (boat) / Punting in England / Racing
caption_attribution_description: English: Best and Best Punts at Chertsey Regatta River Thames
context_page_description: A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting is boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, a shallow draft vessel that is structurally different, and which is propelled by an oar rather than a pole.
  Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling, but in modern times their use is almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips with passengers.
  The term "punt" has also been used to indicate a smaller version of a regional type of long shore working boat, for example the Deal Galley Punt. This derives from the wide usage in coastal communities of the name "punt" for any small clinker-built open-stem general purpose boat.
  In Canada, the term punt can also refer to any small flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, regardless of purpose, building material, or propulsion source.
  In Australia, cable ferries are commonly referred to as punts.
context_section_description: Punt racing in England is governed by the Thames Punting Club, which maintains lists of umpires and publishes a handbook containing rules and bye-laws for those organising punt races on the Thames.
  Races are normally held over a distance of up to 880 yards (800 m) along a straight reach of the river, each end of the course being marked by a pair of poles called "ryepecks" which are firmly pushed into the river bed before the race.  Races are always one punt against another, one having the inner lane and the other the outer lane.  If the outer lane has consistently deeper water, then the length of the outer course may be reduced to make the race more even.
  The competitors usually start with their punts' sterns level with the line between the downstream ryepecks, punt to the upstream ryepecks, and then back.  The winner is the first to pass the line of the starting ryepecks (or the first one to hit his or her own ryepeck).
  The turn at the upstream ryepecks is done by "stopping-up"; that is the competitor passes the ryepeck on the outside, stops his or her punt with the pole just upstream of the ryepeck, turns to face the stern of the boat and punts back in the other direction, passing the ryepeck on the inside.
  Handicap races are normally held in standard "2-foot punts", that is punts that are 2 ft (60 cm) wide in the middle and about 18 inches (45 cm) wide at each end.  There are no restrictions on width or length for non-handicap races; punts used for these races are called "best boats" or "best-and-best" punts; the name comes from the "best" boat that you can find and the "best" boat that your opponent can.  The narrowest of these boats are no more than 15 inches (40 cm) wide.  All racing punts generally have a till at both ends, and may have canvas covers to reduce the amount of water splashing into the boat.
  Punt racing has been a part of the various summer regattas along the Thames, since the early 1890s with punt races held at Sunbury, Chertsey, Walton, Wraysbury, Thames Ditton, Wargrave & Shiplake and Teddington, where there are punting ledges.  The annual Thames Punting Championships are held at Maidenhead. The Punting Championships have been held for well over 100 years, one of the earliest champions being the all-rounder Lord Desborough.
  Punt racing under Thames Punting Club rules has never taken hold at either Oxford or Cambridge, where serious watermen and women have always preferred rowing, but varsity punt races were held on the lower Thames in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 2007 the first official varsity race for around thirty years was held with victory going to the Cambridge team. A Varsity Punt race between the two University punting societies is planned on the Cam for 2014.
  Less formal punt races have also been conducted between the Cambridge Dampers Club, and its one-time Oxford rival the Charon Club.  Races were conducted on the Cam or the Cherwell using normal pleasure punts in relays, traditionally with female undergraduates on each side as the batons, jumping between boats on each leg of the race.
  For a number of years after 1983, the Cambridge Dampers Club also took part in the annual Scottish Boat Race against the Honourable Society of Edinburgh Boaters, racing along the Union Canal between Hermiston and Ratho for the Antlers Trophy.
  In May 2011 Red Bull held the "Punt to Point" competition in Oxford, featuring head to head checkpoint racing.
  In Tübingen, Germany, a race with similar punts (Stocherkahnrennen) on the Neckar river, has been performed annually since 1956, with about 50 punts taking part.
caption: A pair of best-and-best punts, with 2-foot punts at the ryepecks in the background
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