 In 1912, Hiram Boardman Conibear, rowing coach at the University of Washington, visited the Pocock brothers at their Vancouver Harbour shop and convinced them to move to Seattle to build boats for the Washington crews.When rowing at U.W.was shut down during World War I, and there were no boats to be built, the Pocock brothers hired on as pontoon builders for a fledgling Seattle aircraft manufacturer, Pacific Aero Products, which was the forerunner to Boeing.