Sailing Team Wins in New London; Takes Third Straight Racing Crown

Overcoming bad breaks, and violent weather conditions, the Harvard sailing team won the New England Sloop Championship for the third successive year Sunday in New London, Connecticut.

From the beginning of the weekend, it seemed as if the Crimson team, skippered by Carter Ford, was fated to break the Harvard winning streak. The sailors' car broke down on the way to New London Saturday and they did not reach their destination until just before the first race was schedule to begin.

Once the race started, Harvard's bad luck changed temporarily, and the experienced crew sailed their 24 foot Raven to an easy victory. During the second race, however, everything went wrong, the Crimson was forced to withdraw because of an infraction of the third race, at the end of the first day of racing Ford's crew was in third place, one pint behind Rhode Island and two behind arch-rival Yale.

Sunday, the wind was blowing from southwest at speeds approaching forty miles per hour. The Crimson had getting their sloop moving in the day's first race, and consequently finished third behind the previous day's leaders, Rhode Island and Yale. Harvard how fallen dangerously far behind in the point totals, and needed to do extremely well in the last three races in order to retain the championship.

The next race began after an hour's delay for recovering a sloop which capsized on the way to the start. The winds were at their fiercest of the weekend, staying afloat was a challenge. Luck favored Harvard for a change as both Yale and Rhode Island fouled out. Not willing to risk capsizing, Ford sailed conservatively and finished second. Harvard was now in first place, one point ahead of Tale.

Everything depended on the final race. Sailing conditions were somewhat better than in the previous run, and the conditions Crimson crew got off to the kind of lead Ford is noted for. Rhode Island and Yale saw Harvard's stern for the rest of the race, but could not over-take the Crimson sloop. Shouts of joy were heard as the victorious Harvard team crossed the finish line.

The sailors who earned the right to have their names inscribed for the third time on the Lawrence A. White trophy are: Captain Ford, Mike Horn, Rock Pring, and Pete Drake.

Harvard did not do as well in other sailing action over the weekend. Competing is four-foot seas at, Kings Point, R.I. Mike Lehmann John Archibald, and Dave Gauts found themselves in eighth place at the end of the first day of the Nevis Trophy races. On Sunday the team seemed to be more sure of themselves, but Saturday's poor showing was to much to overcome, and Harvard finished fifth.

Dave Stookey and Tim Prince represented Harvard at the Hoyt Trophy races at Brown. The winds were too much for the competitors to handle, and the event was cancelled when six of the eight boats capsized in the second race.