Jim,

My boat's name was the "Blakeley", and was built pre - 1965, maybe evenearlier. One old gent who worked for Pocock in the 50's said it was builtearlier than his time with the company. It is a lightweight or maybefeatherweight. I restored it as original, apart from updating theoarlocks. I found old style clog shoes, the seat slides on 16 little redwheels, wooden beading trims the dacron deck and it still has zero portsor hatches in the seat box.

There remain 3 Pocock singles at OSU; the "Jess", the "Mary Alice" and oneother. The Jess and Mary Alice were purchased(new I believe) in the mid-60's and donated to the program a couple years later. All three boats arein good shape, 2 have updated aluminum riggers and the Jess is still usedregularly.

I'm currently working on a 1982 Pocock cedar single, owned by the awsomerower, Laura Jackson. It needs a hull crack repaired and the cockpitcheeks mended. She plans to race it this summer.

Fun stuff going on down here in Oregon.

Dan Pence

10/24/10 Update

Sue Dandridge, Port Townsend, WA, bought the Blakeley.

5/4/09 Update

Dear Jim,

The first update is that my old Pocock, the Blakeley has been sold to mydaughter, Jesse who rows it out of the Lake Oswego Community Rowingboathouse.

Second update: Did I mention it won the "Best Human-PoweredBoat" category at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival last summer? Andvoted "Best Boat Overall"! These were Peoples Choice type awards, notofficial judges with mirrors, magnifying glasses, and clipboards. Butstill pretty cool when considering it was barely saved from the scrapheap9 months previous.

I have also bought a standard Pocock single for my daily row, but left thefile in my shop. So that will have to wait for another day.

See a perfect single

Dan

I was recently given an old wooden racing shell that is probably a Pocock.It was owned by Oregon State University men's rowing team.

The boat is in bad shape, finish, decks and hardware stripped off in thelate 80's then left in the boat barn cellar till I pulled it out lastweds.

I don't see any identifying marks on the boat anywhere, but the riggersare similar to the ones in photos of Bob Bush's boat. In fact there aremany smilarities between that 50's boat and this one I have.

When I get photos I'll send them on to you.

Dan Pence
Portland, OR

Dan,

Thanks. I'd like to see pictures of your boat. Pocock didn't start putting numbers (required by the Coast Guard) on the tail until the mid 1970's.

There is a page borrowed from Pocock about how to tell who built your shell and thereby narrow the probable date built at http://www.pocockclassic.com/pocock/woodwho.html

Pocock also suggests how to refinish a shell at http://www.pocockclassic.com/pocock/woodvarn.html and we have some pictures and suggestions at http://www.pocockclassic.com/HOH2.html about how to restore and re-deck a shell that we gathered as we restored the famous quad, the Hoh. Be sure to read Ole's remarks at http://www.pocockclassic.com/Kanestrom.html

I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Best,
Jim Buckley