The Handy Punt boat plan is ideal as a fishing boat, outboard dinghy for family use around lakes and estuaries and is a great plywood utility boat for easy building and light enough for cartop transport. More stable than a jonboat.
Length – 11’6″ (3.11m)
Beam – 4′ 2″ (1.62m)
Weight – 100lbs (46kg) – Gaboon (Okoume) Ply Power – 6 to 15hp
*see notes about power allowable by law in the second paragraph – red
- Simple to Build
- Light for Cartop transport
- Very Stable for families or as a fishing boat
- Three Built in Buoyancy tanks
- Excellent Outboard Dinghy for Caravanning.
- Comprehensive Plan Pack with step by step instructions and many illustrations
PDF Plans by email – $80 from Agents listed top left of page or click here
Paper Plans – Please discuss with Agent.
Background to the Handy Punt design:
The Handy Punt was my third design. It was derived largely from the great 8ft (2.4m) Phil Bolger designed “Skimmer” – yet another example of Bolger’s Genius. (Skimmer plan is in Dynamite Payson’s book “Build the New Instant Boats” if you need an 8ft plywood cartop utility boat)
The advantage of the “Handy Punt” is purely in terms of load carrying capacity. She carries a family of four quite happily. 6hp for two people or 8hp for 3 adults or 2 adults with two kids.
She has nice stability for standing and casting and will get you into the shallowest water.
With all that built-in buoyancy there is quite a good margin of safety like a well designed Jon Boat. But it is important to remember that punts (and Jon Boats really are small plywood utility boats suited to lake, river and estuary waters).
Handy Punt materials – Plywood for light weight cartop use.
The Handy Punt comes out of 4 sheets of ply. One of the fun aspects was the amazing lack of ply wastage. Probably less than 5% of the ply is not used in the boat. An interesting corollary of this is that it is difficult to stretch her in length or beam without increasing the amount of ply needed substantially.
Powering the plywood outboard dinghy for fishing and family use:
With new regulations in Australia, the USA and other countries there might be a restriction on the amount of power below what we know works on the boat.
A small amount of foam buoyancy is to be fitted under the rear seats. The hull is so buoyant so the requirement is small, but needs to be considered during building
When I drew the plans up I made the transom strong enough to handle a 15hp outboard. The first few launched used modest powerplants of 6 to 8hp which she handles very nicely. Lower power (5hp) is OK if there is only one person and a light payload – maybe a child and some fishing gear and the intention is to chug along.
Given 8 hp the punt moves along quickly with two people and gear and still moves well with three.
Reports show that 15hp is that one or two up it is a very fast ride – lots of speed – lots of spray. 10hhp makes a lot more sense where it is allowed.
Performance and handling of the Handy Punt outboard dinghy:
The handy punt is one of the most common utility boats. They are fast under moderate power in reasonably smooth water, have a huge initial stability and good weight carrying ability.
THe usual problem with punts as small outboard dinghies is weight of the bottom construction. The Handy punt avoids this by having large external bottom runners which distributes the loads into the seat faces. Not my idea but stolen from the original boat.
The Handy Punt will lift up onto the bottom runners when lightly laden at higher speeds, this reduces the wetted area for a reduction in drag, and more speed.
Weight has a huge affect on speed and general performance. The weight of 110 lbs would be achievable using Gaboon Plywood which is 30% lighter than most other plywoods. If you have trouble locating supplies of this or any other of the materials talk to my agents.
Building a simple plywood utility boat as a Fishing Boat or family boat:
Building is instant style with all components of this small outboard dinghy prefabricated out on the flat. The sides are then set up with the bulkheads and transom between.
It is all rectangles except for the sides.
The boat is now turned over and the seat tops and gunwale framing fitted. Finally the Handy Punt is inverted again and the bottom and bottom runners are now fitted. They work in conjunction with the frames inside the boat to provide a very stiff structure.
Handy Punt – Early Trials Flyer (PDF format)
