Sailors Cop Victory In Ivy Championship

The docks at the M.I.T. sailing pavilion went under water during Cambridge's worst rainstorm in seven years. Ten dinghies flipped over as the wind whipped up monstrous waves on the Charles. But despite the foul weather, an outstanding Crimson sailing team swept over seven other Ivy League crews to win the first Ivy League Dinghy Championship.

Crimson skippers Carter Ford and Mike Hern led the team to a 15-point win ever secondplace Cornell, as Ford finished first in the "A" division, and Hern copped top spot in the "B" races.

The two-day championship series began Saturday on the Charles River Basin in shifty northeast winds of about 10 knots. The rains came all day, periodicaly submerging the pavilion docks and consistently drenching the crews.

The Crimson took an immediate lead in the first races Saturday, and by the end of the day had a substantial margin over the challenging crew of the Big Red. But Cornell, picked as the most serious threat to a Crimson victory, pressed the Harvard team right until the final gun Sunday.

Conditions on Sunday were enough to test the best seamanship, and It's a tribute to the fine crewing work of Dave Gantz, Des FitzGerald, and Mike Lehmann that not one Crimson boat capsized.

Although gale warnings flying from the Charles River Yacht Club Sunday morning exaggerated actual conditions, wind did blow out of the northwest throughout the day at speeds from 15 to 25 knots. The stiff breezes knocked over ten boats and forced several more which filled up with water to retire from the race.

Brown, a strong contender--and in fact among the leaders in the early races--fell far behind Sunday, as the "B" skipper's boat capsized in two consecutive races. Brown finally finished in fifth place, behind Harvard (128 points), Cornell (113), Princeton (110), and Dartmouth (92).

The trophy for the new Championship will be presented to the Harvard team by Bus Mosbacher at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association's annual winter dinner. Mosbacher, skipper of the victorious America's Cup defender Weatherly, donated the trophy last week as a perpetual award for the winner of the Ivy championship.