A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with square ends and no keel, propelled by pushing a long pole against the riverbed. It was a working craft for moving cargo and cutting reeds in shallow water, and it survives almost entirely as a summer amusement in two university cities.
How it is done
You stand at one end, drop the pole vertically into the water until it touches the bottom, push, and then use the pole trailing behind as a rudder to steer. The technique is easy to describe and considerably harder to execute, and the first ten minutes of any beginner’s attempt consist of rotating slowly in circles.
The two schools
This is a genuine and much-enjoyed rivalry.
- Cambridge style — the punter stands on the flat wooden deck (the “till”) at the blunt end. Cambridge punters argue this gives better visibility and leverage.
- Oxford style — the punter stands inside the hull at the opposite end. Oxford punters argue this is more stable and less likely to end in the water.
Each city considers the other’s method faintly ridiculous, and will tell you so unprompted.
Where to do it
Cambridge has the better route by common consent. The Backs run behind the great colleges — King’s, Trinity, St John’s, Clare — passing under the Bridge of Sighs and the Mathematical Bridge, with lawns running down to the water on both sides. It is one of the finest urban river stretches in England.
Oxford punting is on the Cherwell, from Magdalen Bridge or the Cherwell Boathouse. It is greener and more rural, running out towards the University Parks and Water Meadow, and is quieter than the Cambridge Backs in August.
Chauffeur or self-hire
Both cities offer punts with a chauffeur — usually a student — who poles while giving a commentary on the colleges. This is the sensible option for a first visit, and the commentary is generally good.
Self-hire is cheaper and considerably funnier for everyone watching. Expect to be corrected by passing chauffeurs, to lose control near a bridge, and to be photographed by tourists on the bank.
Losing the pole
The classic disaster. The pole sticks in mud, the punt keeps moving, and the punter must decide instantly between letting go and holding on. Holding on results in the punter remaining attached to a vertical pole while the boat departs, followed shortly by a fall into the river. This happens somewhere in Cambridge several times every summer afternoon.
The etiquette
Punts pass on the right. Chauffeured punts have priority in narrow stretches. Cambridge has a persistent problem with aggressive touting on the street near the bridges, and booking directly with an established operator avoids most of it.
The traditional accompaniment is a picnic and a jug of Pimm’s, consumed by the passengers while the punter does the work — an arrangement that everyone accepts as fair on the grounds that steering is the more interesting job.