Over 13 years of expreience with building and maintaining traditional punt craft

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Welcome to Cambridge Punt Builders

We have been building and maintaining punts since 2003. What sets us apart from other punt builders is that we design boats based on our own experience as professional chauffeurs. The advantage of this is that boats are designed for functionality. We are mindful of passenger seating and comfort, ease of boat boarding, handling, top speed and punt durability.

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What We Do

Our boats

Our wonderful craft

Our Customers

Who we work with

Maintainence

A guide to maintainence

The basic design of our punts is a take on the traditional Cambridge punt. Boats seat between 5-12 passengers depending on the boat size. After working on traditional punts we made various improvements a list are as follows:
  • Improved structure significantly increases rigidity giving a higher top speed and durability
  • Runners are welded inside the woodwork. This virtually eliminates loose runners, significantly reducing maintenance costs and potential hazard.
  • Bow of the boat is completely covered by the bumper strip. This stops the vulnerable end grain being exposed. Whilst this sounds obvious most punt builders get their math’s wrong and under estimate the finished thickness of the bow.
  • Two section design allows equally sized groups of passengers to be seated simultaneously, whilst facing one another.
  • Punts are finished with a combination of epoxy resin and varnish. This significantly improves durability, whilst maintaining the traditional varnish shine. Whereas other traditional paints flake off, our epoxy based paint can be scrubbed and take abrasion.
  • Our recommended duck boards are constructed of dark hardwood. They look great for years. Traditional pine turns black and cloudy after just a few months.
  • Our punts are built using Utile as opposed to traditional Khaya. Whilst the Utile is slightly more expensive and difficult to work, it has proven to be more durable and last longer due to its density.
  • Our punts have optimized water run off to reduce rot to a minimum.

River specific design

Our punt design varies depending on the size, speed and depth of the proposed river. We may recommend a slightly different design if you plan to cover longer distances.

How much do punts cost?

The cheapest punts cost £5000. That type of punt featured in the video. The punt featured in the time lapse video is more expensive and would cost £9000. Cambridge Punt Builders supply punts to Scholars Punting Cambridge , Canterbury Punting Company and a number of private punt owners. We recommend that you have your punt maintained every year at a cost of £1000.

Alternatively, you could carry out the maintenance yourself. We do not recommend service intervals of more than one year because that will significantly increase the work required for maintenance. Rotten wood will need replacing as and when is required, of course we cannot predict exactly when that will be because wood is a natural product. In most cases this would include plywood bottom replacement between 5 to 12 years after purchase. A guide price of bottom replacement is £2000. The wood is a natural product and cracks in it can form at any time. Many of these are harmless and will not effect the boat, however we recommend that you have a patch routed into the side at that point. This will cost around £300 per patch. Over time a crack can cause a leak or become a moist environment which accelerates the rotting process.
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Building process
Early Stages
Building process
Early Stages
Building process
Early Stages
Building process
Late Stage Double
Building process
Late Stage Double
Building process
Late Stage Doubble

Contacting Cambridge Punt Builders

For any enquiries please get in touch with as at your soonest convenience, we would love to hear from you.

07426459181

building@cambridgepuntbuilders.co.uk