An iconic figure in rowing ans early contributor to Washington's exceptional rowing performance and character was an english boatbuilder named George Yeoman Pocock. He made his way to Canada and was eventually hired by Hiram Conibear to build new and lighter racing shells for the University in the early 1910s. He worked at the UW Shellhouse, what is now the old ASUW shellhouse on the Montlake cut, making boats until the late 1960s. A combination of his technical boatbuilding skills passed onto him by his father as a young man in Eaton, England and the local materials of the PNW, cedar and pine, led Pocock racing shells to have a reputation as some of the highest quality and fastest shells one could buy. Starting in the 1920s Washington crews rowing in Pocock's shells began returning from the IRAs with gold medals and National Championship titles, a tradition that we still uphold today.