Ahead of the long-awaited film "The Boys in the Boat," which opens this Christmas, row2k had a chance to do a deep dive on how some of the boats used in the film got built, with three of the folks at WinTech who worked on the process.

The film will take viewers back to the days of wooden shells when the titular Boys rowed their famed Pocock eight to victory at the 1936 Olympics. Recreating that world required boats which would fit the bill. While there were some wooden boats used to make parts of the film, including two eights purpose-built by two of the last remaining wooden boatbuilders in the UK, the filmmakers also relied on a fleet of ten carbon-fiber shells dressed to fit the part--a fleet which came to be thanks to WinTech.

WinTech's Dave Dickison, Brent Keuch, and Terry O’Neill--who himself became very involved in the film when he was ultimately asked to coach the actors who would row the boats--shared the story behind their contributions to the boats and the film.

In the end, WinTech built eleven carbon-fiber hulled boats for the film: a prototype that they used to show the production company how they could replicate the look of a wooden shell, and then ten shells which were rowed in the film. The prototype ultimately made it into the film as well, as a prop. That shell, said Keuch, WinTech's Chief Marketing Officer, can be seen on the racks in the boathouse in a few scenes, where, of course, it looks just like another wooden shell.

Film still, courtesy of MGM Studios

WinTech's involvement started in April 2021 when Production Designer Kalina Ivanov called Dickison, the CEO of WinTech North America, in a effort to track down Graeme King, whose hull designs are now sold by the WinTech/King company. Ivanov was looking for a boatbuilder to produce several boats for an upcoming movie, said Dickison, and had gotten King's name as one the last wooden boatbuilders in the US from longtime Northeastern coach, Buzz Congram. Since King had recently retired and moved back to Australia, Dickison offered to meet with her to find out what they needed.

Ivanov happened to be nearby in Lowell, Massachusetts, where "The Boys in the Boat" director George Clooney was finishing up filming on "The Tender Bar," so Dickison met her there, along with Executive Producer Barbara A. Hall and Producer Grant Heslov.

"They talked about wants and needs and stressed their desire to produce a rowing film where the rowing audience would stand up and applaud," said Dickison. "They wanted period correct boats that an expert would approve of."

Dickison realized that WinTech was uniquely positioned to produce a large number of strong carbon-hulled shells which could made to look wooden to fit the part. "What many don’t understand," he said, "is that our production facility made beautiful wood shells for years and was probably one of the last to do so."

His next step was to bring in WinTech's parent company, Flying Eagle, whose owner John Xiong had originally gotten his start as a carpenter for a boat building company in Southern China. That is when Terry O’Neill, a three-time GB Olympic coach and the Head of Global Operations for WinTech, got involved from his base in the UK.

"I didn't think it would be too difficult because all that I had in my mind was that we would just put a wooden veneer on the outside of a composite boat," said O’Neill. "The wooden interior would be easy. That's how the company started making boats anyway. We've still got a lot of carpenters in the factory, so I assumed that they would be quite enthusiastic about showing those skills again."

Wooden interior under construction in the shop (photo courtesy of WinTech)

"In the end, we didn't use a wooden veneer. We used a printed cloth which was lighter," said O’Neill.

"We found that we could print on this fabric sublimation," added Keuch, "because Flying Eagle, our factory, also builds Aquila Yachts and Stellar Kayaks, so we could pull in engineers and other resources."

The fabric, added as an outer layer as each boat got laid up in the molds, created the wooden appearance--an effect many got to see up close when WinTech used the same technique to make the "Tribute" eight that Washington's B boat raced at the Head of the Charles. For the boats made for the film, real wood was used to make all the structures inside the shell to complete the effect.

Once the prototype was built, it was shipped to America--in the middle of post-pandemic shipping and supply chain issues according to Dickison--and then driven from LA to Connecticut, where the Yale men test-rowed it just before the 2021 Head of the Charles.

The prototype was a success, and the order was placed for the rest of the boats, but the producers did ask for one change.

"The original boat that we made was highly polished," said O’Neill, "and they said this is no good because you will see the cameras in the reflection in the hull. So they didn't want any varnish on it at all."

Washington rowing the "Tribute Eight" on the Charles

While the hulls of the boats WinTech built used the company's existing molds for the WinTech and King shells, the interiors of the boats were based on a scan of an actual Pocock eight. It was a 1937 Pocock that Ivanov tracked down at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, and asked Dickison and Keuch to pick up so they could do optical imaging of a shell from the same era for comparison.

Since the imaging had to be done in the WinTech shop, scanning the original Husky Clipper in Seattle was not an option, though Keuch noted the production company did similar studies out in Seattle with the original ASUS Shell House--which was rebuilt on set in the UK--and the actual 1936 shell.

"We collected up the '37 Pocock from St. Paul's boarding school," said Keuch, calling it a "scary day" trailering the 85 year old shell. "Wooden boats, if they're not being used, tend to dry out and it had been up in the rafters."

"We got it to the shop and we did 3-D scans with our two engineers, Dave Thomas and Ed Hofmeister. We wanted to know more and be precise, especially with what it looked like on the inside [of the boat] for the carpenters and the wood working."

Film still, courtesy of MGM Studios

The 3-D scans also helped the two British wooden boat builders who made the two all-wood eights for the film, said O’Neill.

"The scans that Brent took [were used for] two exact replicas of that boat built over here by a guy called Mark Edwards, who also built old Nero, the training barge," said O’Neill. "And the guy that actually built the two boats was a guy called Bill Colley."

O’Neill noted that the production had the good fortune to catch the two men still practicing the craft of building wooden sculls to provide those replicas: "In a few years, all that skill and knowledge is going to be gone. There's no one coming up."

O’Neill remembered joking with Colley, whom he's known for over 45 years, about whether he could build an eight, since he mostly builds wooden singles and doubles, to which Colley replied: "it's only a long sculling boat, innit?"

(Ed. note: The work Colley and Edwards did on the boats for the film was covered in this January 2022 article on the "Hear the Boat Sing" blog: English Boatbuilders are Building Boats for "The Boys" Movie.)

"Their scenery department made some wooden boats as well," said O’Neill. "They were just the hulls that were on the rack in the Washington boathouse, but they were pretty good. It was quite impressive."

In Part II, which you can read here, we will hear more from O'Neill about the work he did behind the scenes once the boats WinTech built arrived on set.

"The Boys in the Boat" opens in theaters on December 25th.

UW shoving off in the "Tribute Eight"