Unveiling A New Home For Rowing

THE GEORGE POCOCK Memorial Center will support world-class crews as well as programs aimed at disabled and inner-city youths, undertakings that should help erase the sport's elitist image.

"Harmony, balance, rhythm. There you have it. That is what life is about."

- George Pocock, 1891-1976. -----------------------------------------------------------------

That's the inscription at the entrance of the $2 million George Pocock Memorial Rowing Center, scheduled to open next week.

Another appropriate quotation, this one from the movie "Field of Dreams:"

"If you build it, they will come."

At least that's what the Pocock Rowing Foundation is hoping.

The rowing center, on the former site of an old blackberry patch at the northeast end of Lake Union between the I-5 and University bridges, is the dream of generations of Seattle-area rowers. It is envisioned as a functioning cathedral of Northwest rowing.

Finally, rowers will have a building owned and operated by fellow rowers where they can store their shells, go for a row, lift weights, then shower and get to their jobs.

It also will be a home port for rowing clubs and high-school crews, and a site for instructional programs aimed at disabled and inner-city youths, undertakings that should help erase some of the elitist image of the sport. It also will serve the needs of the region's world-class rowers as a place to train.

The center is a major achievement of the George Pocock Foundation. The foundation was founded in 1984, eight years after the legendary boatbuilder's death, to develop rowing in the Puget Sound region.

But as board member Lyman Hull said, "As we went along, it became apparent we couldn't do an adequate job without a rowing center. There has been a need for a rowing center for a long time."

Goal: Drawing new rowers

The center is expected to draw new people to the sport. Costs? The monthly fee to store a scull is $20 and the annual fee for use of the locker room and weight room will be $250.

Wondering what a scull costs? Expect to pay $2,600 for a new one, although used ones sometimes can be found for under $2,000.

"It's going to be like running to a health club at noon," rower Shari Fisher said. "Instead, you'll take your boat out, then shower and get back to work."

Fisher laughed as she recalled how a rowing partner years ago used to change into a nurse's uniform in the car as she was driven to Swedish Hospital after early morning workouts.

The center won't operate its own rowing club but rather serve as the mother facility for existing clubs. The typical person who shows up and wants to try rowing will be steered to a club, not handed oars and given a lesson on the spot. The center won't be in the business of renting shells.

One of the organizations happiest to see the Pocock center open is the Seattle Rowing Club.

"As a small, growing club, the Pocock center is really the best thing that could have happened to us," said Martha Dale, president of the SRC. "It will be a world-class training facility, as well as a stable environment that makes us more accessible to new members."

The SRC, primarily a group of lightweight-class women, has borrowed space from other rowing organizations around Lake Union for nine years.

The Pocock Center, designed by architect Ken MacInnes, has three floors, but the top one will be rented out as office space. The 6,000-square-foot middle floor, which includes an apartment for a caretaker, will feature a large weight room, offices, locker rooms and a conference room.

The bottom floor is 8,000 square feet of storage space. It will accommodate up to 175 shells ranging from sculls to eights. Five bay doors open toward the water.

Showcase for rowing history

No one seems prouder of the building than Pocock's son, Stan, 70, who made a six-figure donation to help build it.

"We tried to make it something that will be here in 100 years," he said.

Alan Mackenzie, president of the Pocock Foundation, said he hopes the center also can serve as an exhibit area for the Northwest's rich rowing tradition. Puget Sound-area rowers account for more than 40 Olympic medals, far more than in any other sport.

"Rowing has a rich history here, but it's all in people's closets," Mackenzie said.

One of the most revered names in that history is George Pocock. He built the world's finest shells for half a century and achieved a worldwide reputation as a master craftsman and rowing expert.

"He enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the business from time the University of Washington won its first national race in the 1920s for the next 50 years," said Bruce Beall, executive director of the Pocock Foundation. "He was more interested in people rowing and enjoying the sport than in making a big profit. I think that spirit has carried over to the foundation. Rowing has meant a lot to people who row, and they want more people to have the opportunity to do it."

Supporters donated $1.5 million

The Pocock boatshop moved off the UW campus in 1963 to a Lake Union building across from the new rowing center. The building is now the studio of famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. In 1985, oarsman Bill Tytus purchased the Pocock company, and it now operates under the Pocock name in Everett.

A total of $1.5 million has been raised for the center, and fund-raising continues. Noted author David Halberstam, who has written about the sport, appeared at a fund-raising banquet May 11 at the center.

Halberstam summed up a goal of the facility when he told the 200 people that the center was "not to enable the elite to do something they already do, but to enable ordinary people to do something they otherwise might not be able to do."