The Boys in the Boat summary

Joe Rantz was born in 1914 in the logging town of Spokane, Washington. His father Harry ran an automobile repair shop. Joe’s only brother, Fred, was 15 years older.

When he was four years old, Joe's mother died of throat cancer, which, unfortunately, was but the first of many setbacks. After his mother died, his father left for Canada and young Joe bounced back and forth between living with his aunt and living with his brother.

You can’t master the art of rowing overnight, as University of Washington rowing candidates would soon find out.

Perfect rowing technique comes down to getting the right swing, when the rowers are all in harmony with each other. The candidates for the freshmen team were competing for spots on a boat that would include eight rowers and one coxswain, the person who sits at the back of the boat and shouts orders to the person in the bow, the rower at the front who sets the pace.

A good team also needs a good boat and George Pocock made the best. The legendary story of Pocock starts in England and ends in Washington.

Rowing’s legacy is closely connected with London’s River Thames, where the Pocock family first began building their boats. George’s grandfather, uncle and father were all in on the family business, and his father specialized in building racing shells for Eton College.

The University of Washington rowing team’s strenuous preparation all came down to two races: the Pacific Coast Regatta that takes place every April, and the Poughkeepsie Regatta, the national championship in June.

There was a lot on the line from the very beginning. Tom Bolles, the freshmen coach, hadn’t lost a Pacific Coast Regatta in six years on the job. And the team’s biggest rival, the University of California at Berkeley, coached by Kyle Bright, had won an Olympic victory in 1932.

After their unprecedented victories in the Pacific Coast and Poughkeepsie Regattas, the University of Washington freshman team was singled out by the press as bound for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. But nothing was guaranteed.

The following year when the teammates were sophomores, Ulbrickson gathered them in the boathouse and told them that getting to the Olympics was now officially their goal. They cheered when they heard the news.

The sophomores prevailed at the Pacific Coast Regatta but it was the junior varsity team that left the biggest impression on everyone. With the Poughkeepsie Regatta right around the corner, Coach Ulbrickson was still unhappy with the sophomores’ unreliable results.

The sophomore team’s fate rested on their training for the upcoming Poughkeepsie race. Their delight at their win in California didn’t last long: as soon as the teams started training for the next race, it was clear the junior varsity boat was stronger.

The United States was still unsure of what to make of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in the lead up to the Berlin Olympics of 1936. However, the country was still recovering from the Great Depression and the losses of World War One, so most Americans wanted to stay out of another foreign war.

But there was still a lot of opposition to Nazism and many called for a boycott of the Olympic Games. On 8 December 1935, the Amateur Athletic Union voted on whether or not they should boycott the games, but the union decided by a slim margin that they would compete.

In January 1936, Al Ulbrickson gathered his teams and told them that anyone hoping to get to the varsity boat that year would have to face a grueling training season.

Ulbrickson was prepared to shake things up. The only thing he was certain of was that Bobby Moch would be the coxswain, steering the others. Bobby was a year ahead of Joe, Roger and Shorty and was widely considered one of the most talented people on the team.

After Joe was finally added to the team, the newly christened Husky Clipper varsity boat set out on the water.

The year started off well for the boys: the team aced both the Pacific Coast and the Poughkeepsie Regattas.

After making the journey on the ocean liner the SS Manhattan, the boys finally arrived in Berlin on 23 July 1936.

Trouble started as soon as they got there. Everyone except Bobby Moch had gained weight on the trip over, thanks to the on-board buffet. Even worse, Don Hume contracted a respiratory infection. He could hardly get out of bed, let alone practice.