Destry,
I have never met Captain Shorthouse, but I've spoken to him on the phone ... as you realise this is not an undertaking to be lightly contemplated. There are more limbless donkeys in Dorset than the rest of the country put together.
Joe posted bobbing around in your little boats lining up that big cannon. Joe, a punt is around 22 foot long, very narrow, open decked, and has about 5" max of freeboard, no keel and a much closer centre of gravity than we'd like relative to the centre of buoyancy. If that sucker starts bobbing you won't be lining up a shot you'll be paddling for your life. Punts are not very seaworthy, their profile is determined by the needs of a stealthy approach ie minimum height and width possible; unlike most other vessels buoyancy is gained from length rather than width at the beam. They also have only a modest amount of flare (you can't afford the noise of wave slap). This combination gives a marked tendency to cut through waves rather than ride them; not a good feature in a seaboat. The beam has to allow for enough lateral stability for a man to stand up and no more.
The design and construction of the punt relative to local conditions is far more challenging than that of the gun and puts a bigger stress on your physical skills and mental resources.
Eug
Last edited by eugene molloy; 07/06/08 08:39 AM.
