Loch Foyle Punt

Book Extract

As tippy as it is slippery, the Loch Foyle punt is Londonderry’s answer to the Brixham Trawler and a revived local class is reason enough to visit a town that is rediscovering its sailing past.

Tucked away on the north coast of Ireland, about as far as it gets from the Solent, Loch Foyle is off the map for most people. But anyone who wants to venture further afield should put it high up their list of places to visit.

I went for the first time in July and had my eyes opened as to the changes that have taken place in the area and its potential.

For a start, the loch is huge; nearly 180 square kilometres, much of which is protected for wildlife. Second, it has some very friendly places to visit, not least Londonderry. The city used to be a naval base. But first the Navy moved out, then the troubles distracted people from the River Foyle which runs through the city.

That situation is now changing rapidly. The waterfront has been tidied up, restaurants have opened and pontoons have been installed for visiting yachts. Previous no-go areas are now on the tourist route and the city has some of the only intact city walls in Europe. Just west is Donegal, a part of the Irish republic but an easy one to visit because there are no border posts.

I write all this not as a travelogue but as an introduction. Most of us know that yachts developed out of commercial craft, but it is still fun to discover working craft that are now being raced as yachts. 

One such class is the Loch Foyle punt, raced by the Foyle Yacht Club just outside Londonderry.

The club claims to be the only fortified yacht club in Ireland because its main building is a small tower built in 1608 (although they would like to move to a larger site where they could improve facilities). The punts were originally developed from the Donegal punt, which in turn was a diminutive version of the Drontheim, a fishing boat imported from Trondheim in Norway.

Donegal punts were built by local farmers, so that they could fish for salmon or gather seaweed to spread across their fields as a fertiliser.

The Foyle punt became the workhorse of the local fishing communities around Loch Foyle. And just as working crews of Falmouth Oyster smacks and Brixham Trawlers used to hold races in their heyday, so did those of punts, encouraging developments and, eventually, some standardisation.

Clinker-built, undecked, 16ft long, with fine lines and a tall rig, the punts look similar to many clinker open boats. But they lack a keel, which makes them interesting to sail – it is inadvisable to cleat the mainsheet as they react very quickly to even a slight increase in wind strength. The crew consists of the helmsman, the middleman and the jibman.

Their freeboard is low and stone ballast is shipped to help the leeward gunwale from going under. This is dumped on the middleman’s stomach; presumably the idea is that if the boat does capsize the middleman will take the ballast with him and lighten the boat. Certainly, the punts accelerate with any puff of wind. But they also heel alarmingly and capsizes are common despite the ballast.

One advantage of an open boat is that the ballast will drop out if it capsizes and inverts, and without the weight of a metal keel the boat will still float. But the punts still need to be taken ashore to be righted properly. Jibs are backed to get through a tack and gybes are avoided wherever possible. Anyone who has capsized a Laser while gybing will understand the sense of this!

The class is very active and the Foyle Yacht Club has about 20 punts, from one built only a year ago to one that goes back 80 years at least.

Regardless of age, wood formers not drawings are used to create the shape. The punt class also has its own rules. For example, a glass of whiskey has to be taken before a race. This may account for the occasional exchange of blows when the racing is close but an occasional punch seems a small price to pay for the conviviality that flows from this pleasant custom.

 

© Not to be reproduced without written permission from Fernhurst Books Limited.

Knox-Johnston On Seamanship & Seafaring is written by Robin Knox-Johnston. Robin Knox-Johnston rose to fame in 1969 when he became the first person to sail non-stop and solo around the world. In an illustrious sailing career he has also set records for the fastest circumnavigation and last raced solo round the world in 2007, aged 68. He was knighted in 1995.