2015-
Punting Around...
The result was the collective’s first plywood punt, based on the construction of flat-bottomed English boats designed to be pushed along shallow rivers or canals with a pole. In a single day, the punt was assembled, transported to Southwest Philadelphia, and launched on the Lower Schuylkill River at Bartram’s Garden. She was named Onward! Swift Sedona to pay tribute to both Professor Moses’s distinctive email sign-off and a classmate who could not attend because she was competing in a track meet. Following a few uneventful years sitting in a student maker cooperative at Haverford, the punt was recently dusted off and painted in collaboration with artist Chloe Wang, who was involved in the construction of the boat as a student. The punt launch was her first visit to Bartram’s Garden, where she now works, helping to deliver free and low-cost recreation and educational programs on the river. The painting depicts features of the river that may not be immediately obvious, such as its tide cycle and many animal inhabitants. A similar painting, one in a series of four, will soon hang at the Bartram’s Garden Community Boathouse.
Below Philadelphia’s Fairmount Dam, the Lower Schuylkill River travels just over seven miles to meet the mighty Delaware. As the gravitational pulls of the sun and moon slosh the Atlantic ocean to and fro, the rising and falling of tides reach up through the Delaware Estuary all the way to Fairmount Dam, causing the water level to fluctuate by an average of six feet. Twice each day, the direction of flow reverses: upriver toward the dam approaching high tide, and back down toward the Delaware approaching low tide, a semidiurnal tide cycle. The Lenape name Tool-pay Hanna (“turtle river”) would suggest that turtles have long made this river their home, and indeed, several turtle species can be seen sunning on rocks and logs throughout the warmer months.
The diverse Schuylkill River ecosystem includes an abundance of species that would seem to indicate good water quality, despite ongoing pollution. The bottom face of the boat depicts a small selection of fauna inhabiting the Lower Schuylkill. Over 40 species of fish live here, some year-round and some during migration. Of the dozen-plus species of freshwater mussels once found throughout the Delaware Estuary, many are near extinction. Efforts are being made to restore mussels to Pennsylvania waterways, where they can do the important work of strengthening streambeds against erosion and filtering the water of particles and pollutants. Beavers are not typical inhabitants of tidal areas, because the changing water level disrupts their attempts to construct lodges and dams. However, in the fall of 2017, a pair of beavers was spotted multiple times in the Lower Schuylkill, to the great excitement of their beholders. We learned they would likely soon move on from their outpost in the small tidal wetland at Bartram’s Garden, but freshly gnawed wood in the area leads us to believe they are still around, and their residency is honored here.
“A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square bow, intended for use in small rivers or other shallow and
mostly calm waters. Punting is what one does in a punt. The punter punts the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. As Wikipedia notes, if you're using an oar you're probably in a gondola. A gondola is a sort of punt dressed up for formal occasions, funerals, and the like. A punt is good for fishing, or carrying ballast, or taking you and a friend camping for the weekend on a river isle. A punt is one of the simplest boats you can build, and for that matter it is one of the most versatile. You can stand in and on it, which is more than you can say for most kayaks or canoes.
Originally designed as work boats, or for hauling cargo from shallow place to shallow place (say, up and down a canal), the punt has remained one of the best veliicles for getting out on the water and tooling around, i.e. pleasure trips up and down English canals. For that matter, it's not so bad for exploring further-off places on mostly flat water either, equally suited to it as a raft would be and without the need for added flotation.”
Schuylkill Center Broadsheet (8.9 mb)
Schuylkill Punt Broadsheet from Haverford College (1.8 mb)
Small (8.5 x 11) Punt Building Kit (353 kb)
Full sized punt plans (2.5 mb)
See also: Or, the Other Island (Exhibition)
166 7th Street // Gowanus Studio Space
Brooklyn, New York 11215