The Punt Premises of Fogo Island
The punt represents our lives as people of the sea. Shorefast Foundation has been working to preserve and celebrate the iconic punt as part of our larger effort to understand the past and bring our Fogo Island ‘way of knowing’ into the future. The Punt Premises brings our punts and all the associated skills and traditions together in a set of heritage buildings, as a living, breathing and publicly accessible place for both residents and visitors alike to experience.
Celebrating Our Past While Building Our Future
We are restoring a traditional fishing premises dating back to the mid 1800’s. Donated to the foundation in 2015, the property includes a traditional family house, two lofts, a fishing stage, and a new floating dock to launch and haul up punts. The site will serve as a year-round community gathering space, a boatbuilding educational centre, and the home base for community punt races.
Cultural Activities for Everyone
Once restored, these buildings will become an important place for the community and visitors to engage with our local culture through year-round programming:
- Observe and get involved in the craft of punt-making;
- Learn about punt history and how to forage for the specially shaped wood required to make them;
- Participate in making wood and twine products such as net knitting, paddle carving, knot making, whittling net, knitting needles, and making toll pins and wits;
- Participate in the splitting, salting and drying of cod on traditional flakes around the stages and stores;
- Meet over a sandwich or a cup of tea in the traditional house kitchen;
- Take a punt for a row, or a scull in the harbour.
These activities build on the past 10 years of The Great Fogo Island Punt Race: To There And Back, which has renewed community excitement for the punt and led to new commissioned punts being built and used for racing and recreation. The Punt Centre will create a sustainable venue to celebrate and preserve our wooden boat heritage, further engaging our community and visitors in our traditions and history.
The steps towards achieving our vision
There are many important steps before accomplishing our goal to create the punt centre. Currently, we have a team of six builders who are working on site to achieve our vision step by step. We will track their progress with photographs taken before and after each important intervention to help you understand and follow this exciting transformation.
About Shorefast
Shorefast is a registered Canadian charity based on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, which operates with a mission to build economic and cultural resilience on Fogo Island.
We have committed to preserving and to carrying forward the knowledge contained in Fogo Island’s traditional small wooden boat, the punt. As part of that commitment, we are restoring a fishing premises in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm. Comprising a family house, two fisherman’s lofts, a fishing stage, and a new floating dock to launch and haul up punts, the property will become known as the Punt Premises.
Here on this blog, you can follow the progression of this heritage restoration and learn about traditional outport Newfoundland architecture, and in so doing, explore the balance between heritage and modern restoration, people and architecture, design and purpose, as well as culture and locality.
www.shorefast.org / fb: @ShorefastFogoIsland / t: @shorefastFI / insta: @shorefastfogoisland
