Elegant Punt
In October 2003 I decided to build a boat. My criteria for it was
it had to be light weight for car top transport, easy for one person to
lift and carry to the water for use in small lakes and rivers for my
passion of fly fishing. I saw a Harold Payson's boat, read both of his
books, consulted with him, got the working plans from him, after
settling upon the Elegant Punt.
20 hours of research; 77 hours of
building and I have a boat that weighs 57 pounds, handles superbly and
is a nice looking wooden boat. If I hadn't chose to use a clear epoxy
finish, but with some beautiful grained Mahogany 1/4 Lauan ply who'd
want to paint it. The total time would have been about 67 hours. Out
here in the PNW, I've had people recognize a Payson boat and get
comments about its design and function. The beauty of this boat you can
make a few cosmetic changes and have a very personalized craft. I made
wooden oar sockets and a fore wooden socket to hold a pocket puller release for the
anchor. Added floor cleats left from the ripping of the gunwale stock
which give portection to the bottom.
This was the first boat I had ever built and it was not hard. ct
