California Clipper

The California Clipper was the University of California, Berkeley’s varsity racing shell in the 1936 contest against the University of Washington. A sleek, carefully engineered cedar boat, it represented the technical equality of two elite crews before their race became a test of pacing and composure: California led early, but Washington’s measured response and California’s disrupted rhythm turned the contest into a three-length victory for the Washington crew and a new course record.

Identity and Construction

The California Clipper belonged to a sport with a large public following. In the 1920s and 1930s, collegiate crew drew press coverage and crowds comparable to those for major American sports. In the West, that interest gathered around the long-running rivalry between the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington. Their annual April regattas brought tens of thousands of students, alumni, and local spectators to watch the schools contest preeminence in western rowing. The shell was therefore more than a piece of equipment: it was the physical vessel through which a celebrated collegiate rivalry would be decided on the water.

The California Clipper was one of two state-of-the-art shells in the 1936 varsity race. Its counterpart was the Husky Clipper, and both were among George Pocock’s latest boats. Each was sixty-two feet long and, within a pound or two, weighed the same. Their crews were almost equally matched by total weight as well: California’s oarsmen weighed 1,557 pounds in all, against 1,561 for Washington. The boats shared cedar skins five-thirty-seconds of an inch thick, yellow cedar washboards, ash frames, Sitka-spruce gunnels, and fore and after decking made of silk impregnated with varnish. Both also had Pocock’s trademark camber, a slight curvature that gave the shell compression, spring, and liveliness in the water. The detailed likeness made it difficult to claim a decisive material advantage for either boat; the outcome would depend on how the crews handled the water and the race.

Preparation and Race Conditions

California arrived in Seattle on the afternoon of April 14 and checked into the Edmond Meany Hotel. The previous day, Al Ulbrickson had sent his Washington crew onto rough water comparable to the conditions in which California had beaten Washington decisively in 1932. When the California crew reached the Montlake Cut the next morning, however, the sun was bright and the water smooth. Sun-bronzed and imposing beside the paler Washington rowers, the visitors made a strong impression. Ky Ebright climbed into the California Clipper’s coxswain seat, strapped on a megaphone, and took the boat on an eight-mile pull far down Lake Washington, beyond the Washington coaching staff’s view.

Neither Ebright nor Ulbrickson publicly disclosed time-trial results in the following days. Both coaches offered gloomy assessments of their crews’ prospects, leaving the true balance between the boats uncertain. On race day, that uncertainty was matched by difficult conditions. A stiff tailwind sent rough water and whitecaps along the course, while the tall bodies of the rowers caught the wind and helped hurry the shells forward. As the varsity boats approached the start, the California Clipper bobbed in the swells. The two crews’ nearly identical weight and equipment offered little indication of which shell would cope better once the race began.

The Contest on the Water

At the start, both shells accelerated hard, rowing at a rate of thirty-five or thirty-six strokes per minute. California’s stroke, Gene Berkenkamp, soon drove the California Clipper into a short lead. For three-quarters of a mile, the boats held close together, their crews working furiously through the choppy water. Washington’s Don Hume matched Berkenkamp’s rate without closing the gap. Bobby Moch, Washington’s coxswain, then chose not to answer California’s pace with more effort. He told Hume to reduce the rate; Hume dropped to twenty-nine.

That change altered the race’s movement. Hume began taking long, smooth, deep strokes, and the Washington crew settled into a coordinated rhythm behind him. Seat by seat, the Husky Clipper regained water. At the one-mile mark the boats were even, and Washington was beginning to edge ahead. From the California Clipper, coxswain Tommy Maxwell called for ten especially hard strokes. California responded, but the extra effort did not appreciably reduce Washington’s small lead. California later raised its rate again for another burst; Moch again declined to take the bait, and Washington retained its advantage.

As the boats neared the two-mile buoy, the California shell rolled slightly off keel twice. On both occasions, a pair of oarsmen on the starboard side failed to make clean releases from the water. Each mistake interrupted the crew’s rhythm and slowed the boat. Washington moved out to a three-quarter-length lead. Maxwell urged California onward, and Berkenkamp brought the rate back up to thirty-five and then thirty-six, but the renewed effort did not reverse the developing advantage. With half a mile remaining, Moch finally told Hume to increase the pace. Washington surged ahead, its strokes synchronized as it accelerated through the final stretch. The California Clipper could not recover: Washington crossed the line three lengths in front.

Result and Significance

The California crew continued rowing hard to the finish, and both boats beat the previous course record. California’s effort made the result a fast race, but Washington’s margin was decisive: the Husky Clipper finished in 15:56.4, thirty-seven seconds inside the old mark. The California Clipper’s defeat mattered in the context of a rivalry that extended beyond this one course. Washington had beaten California in the Pacific Coast Regatta in consecutive years, only to lose afterward at Poughkeepsie; a local victory therefore did not settle which crew would prevail at the next level of competition.

In this race, the California Clipper’s close material match with Washington’s shell sharpened the contrast between equipment and execution. The boats shared length, construction, and a design meant to give them spring in the water, while their crews were separated by only four pounds. Yet California’s early lead could not protect it when Washington changed pace, held steady through California’s bursts, and capitalized on the missed releases near the two-mile mark. The California Clipper consequently stands in the account not as an inferior boat, but as the evenly matched rival against which Washington’s tactical patience and collective rhythm became visible.