Poled, not motored
A traditional Cambridge punt, pushed along by a chauffeur with a wooden pole. No engine noise, no diesel, and a pace slow enough to actually look at things.
Our story
It began with a lost licence and a secondhand piano.
Winter 2012 · Cambridge
We ran historical tours along the college backs until the licences were carved up between the big operators. Small independents like us were politely told we would not be trading again.
Then · London
Friends in the same position banded together to fight it. That looked like a David and Goliath story with an unhappy ending, so we took the punt to London instead.
The motorised years
Getting licensed onto Regent's Canal took endless red tape. At first the punt had to carry an engine: Camden Lock to Little Venice and back, an hour and a half, twelve passengers. Not a business that was going to last.
Two miracles at once
Desmond, who ran the piano shop in Camden Market, suggested we put a piano on the boat. In the same season the Canal and River Trust allowed the pole back for propulsion. The engine came out, the piano went in, and The Music Boat existed.
The piano goes, the guitars arrive
The piano was later ruled unsafe, a judgement based on how it looked rather than how it floated. It was replaced by very good guitarists and accordionists, who are on the boat to this day.
The afternoon we fished a man out
A gentleman decided to climb the footbridge's support beam. The beam stops two thirds of the way across. He hung there until he fell in, to loud cheers from a busy towpath, and it became clear rather quickly that he could not swim. We untied the punt, got the pole out over the gunwale, he grabbed the end, and we pulled him aboard.
