‘Joke’ ends in trip

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 5

‘Joke’ ends in trip

An English boatbuilder and restorer, Mr Adrian Gayner, aged 20, shapes the first of four punts that he is building for the restaurant project at the Edmonds band rotunda on the Avon riverbank.

Tourplan Pacific, Ltd, hopes to open the restaurant in early February. Mr Gayner said that he was more or less joking when he met the managing director, Mr Geoffrey Ellis, in Bath, England, last year and offered to come to New Zealand to build the punts.

“A week later I got the invitation to come,” he. said. “I have been building boats, mainly racing rowing boats, for about four years, and was an with the Bath

Boating Company when I met Mr Ellis.”

So far Mr Gayner’s building and restoring skills have also taken him to the United States and the Netherlands.

A punt was easier to build than a clinker-built boat, Mr Gayner said.

“The timber I am using includes mahogany from the Philippines for the sides and duck boards, kauri for the trends, and a kahikatea bottom. These punts will be an elaboration of the basic models used at Cambridge.”