THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DYNASTY 9. Hands well beyond the knees and body over the middle before the slide starts out of bow. 10. Body at full extension by the time the seat reaches the stern stops. No stretching out for more reach before the catch. In George Pocock’s own words, beginning at the release, you should “shoot the hands and arms away as quickly as you like, the quicker the better. When the arms are straight . . . follow with the body, changing its angle, almost as if the arms draw the body forward; and follow with the slide, almost as if the body angle pulls the slide forward.”1662 Unintended Consequences Mike Spracklen recalls: “When I was a lad, I used to go to Henley in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and I used to watch the American crews, Yale and Cornell particularly, and the American crews were so impressive, you know, the way they went about things, how they’d come down and put their boat in the water. “The American coaches would call out, ‘Get out of the bow! Get out of the bow!’ as they went up the tow path. The crews would row very lively out of the bow to get the bow to rise up and plane, and then poise over the feet. The Pocock boats were bowed like bananas, so the bow used to really run right up at speed, and the way they rowed all fitted in with getting out of bow for the Pocock boats they rowed. It all made sense.”1663 Charlie Grimes, 5-seat in the 1956 Yale Olympic Champion Eight:1664 “The Pocock boat that Yale brought over to Henley in 1957 was our 1956 Olympic boat, and [our coach, Jim Rathschmidt] came to me and said, ‘We have an offer to buy the 1662 www.pocockrowing.org, p. 2 1663 Spracklen, personal conversation, 2005 1664 See Chapter 67 ff. boat. They call it a banana boat because it has a definite bend to it, but don’t you think we should keep our Olympic boat?’ “I said, ‘Jim, you’ve got to be crazy. If you can get anything for it, sell it! The boat has flown a lot of miles, and it’s sprung! “Leave it in England. You’ll set back English rowing quite a ways!’ “So we did that.”1665 Mike Spracklen: “I remember going to Eton College, where Frank Claret was building boats, and he told me they were trying to build boats so they would plane on top of the water as the Pococks did. “But later when I came to North America and I met George Pocock, he told me, ‘We don’t build boats like that. We build them straight, but Western Red Cedar bows.’ “And I said, ‘But the guys in Britain are trying to copy the bend in your boats!’ “He said, ‘That’s what happens to red cedar. We build them flat, but when they mature, that’s the natural way. The cedar hull expands, and the cockpit doesn’t.’”1666 No matter the original intent, getting their Pocock shell to plane over the water became the ultimate goal of all American crews in the first half of the 20th Century. Stan Pocock: “Always row as though you are trying to help the bow climb out of the water. To put it another way, never do anything to push the boat down into the water. Keep the waterline constant.”1667 Hesitation 11. Slight hesitation (‘pause’) before the catch. 1665 Grimes, personal correspondence, 2006 1666 Spracklen, personal conversation, 2005 1667 S. Pocock, op.cit. 441
