business backgrounder | industry
As the story was relayed to Washington Business magazine
by Andrea Buch, head of customer relations for Everett-based
Pocock Racing Shells, it wasn’t until George took a fateful
extended trip abroad sometime after World War II that Stanley
Pocock, George’s son, who followed his father into the family
business, had the time necessary to build an experimental boat
made of different materials, such as aluminum, and test it before
George returned.
According to Buch, George would never have allowed the
experimentation on his watch. But what he didn’t foresee was
that changing the materials of the boat’s structure would later
serve to add to the heady legacy that is Pocock Racing Shells.
48 association of washington business
same boat, new-age materials
To this day, the 20-employee company produces hand-tooled and
assembled elite rowing equipment. Only now, the boats are constructed
with the next generation’s advanced material: carbon fiber.
The manufacturing of the shells takes place in a well-maintained
but non-descript white warehouse near the Boeing Airplane plant
in Everett, a perfect location for sourcing carbon fiber and other
innovations in durable, lightweight materials.
The business builds more than 150 racing shells each year, not a
small feat for a company that still crafts and assembles each boat by
hand. In fact, with the exception of Pocock and one other boat maker
in Germany, all other racing shell manufacturers have moved away
from using labor and skill-sensitive wet layups to more of an assembly