Back at the University of Washington, Joe and his fellow freshman recruits struggle to grasp the basics of collegiate rowing. They are warned that achieving a spot on the Washington rowing team is a difficult task and that most of them will give up by the end of the semester, choosing to play “something less physically and intellectually demanding, like football” (41). Joe notices another man who is often present at practice but never speaks. This is Pocock, the expert craftsman responsible for building the world’s best racing boats.

Pocock was born into the racing shell business, as his father was a famous boat builder. He grew up in England, a working-class boy among privileged sons of lords at Eton, a prestigious boarding school. Pocock and his brother eventually moved to Vancouver, Canada, where they built racing shells. It was there that Pocock met Hiram Conibear, who was then the head of Washington’s rowing team. Conibear recruited the brothers, and Pocock has resided at the university ever since, building boats and advising coaches on technique. Brown writes that “in the years since coming to Washington, Pocock had become its high priest” (48).

At first, Joe and the recruits try to master rowing on Old Nero, the freshman try-out boat, which is a rite of passage.